1845.] Drafts for a Fauna Indica. 859 



soon after they are hatched. The only Indian species is among the 

 least characteristic of the tribe, so much so, that it requires some know- 

 ledge of its various Australian affines to comprehend its classification in 

 the present group. It ranks under 



CHALCOPHAPS, Gould, (apparently a sylvan sub-genus of Phaps, 

 Selby, exemplified by the common Bronze- wing of Australia). 



Ch. indica : Columba indica, Lin. : C. pileata, Scopoli : C.javanica (?), 

 cyanocephala, et albicapilla, Gmelin : C. cyanopileata, et griseocapilla, 

 Bonnaterre : C. super ciliar is, Wagler. (Rdm-G'hoogoo and R'hdj-G'hoo- 

 goo, Bengal ; Gyo-ngyo, Arracan.) Back and wings, emerald- green, 

 glossed with aureous ; the feathers distinct and scale-like : neck, breast, 

 and under-parts, vinaceous-brown, paler below, and of a duller hue in 

 the female ; two broad dusky bars, alternating with greyish-white, on 

 the rump : tail, dusky in the male, its outermost and penultimate fea- 

 thers whitish- grey, with black subterminal band : primaries, dusky : 

 forehead of the male, white, passing as a supercilium over the eye ; the 

 crown of the head, ash-grey : a white bar near the angle of the wing ; 

 and lower tail- coverts, ashy, the longest, brown-black : inside of the 

 wings, reddish cinnamon-brown. The female has a greyish- white fore- 

 head, much less developed than in the other sex, and a narrow whitish 

 supercilium ; crown of the head, rufescent ; no white bar at the shoulder 

 of the wing ; the tail tinged with ferruginous ; and the neck and under- 

 parts are browner than in the male. Irides, dark : bare skin around the 

 eyes, deep purplish- carneous, as are also the legs ; and the beak is bright 

 coral-red, except towards the nostrils, where somewhat dusky. Length, 

 ten inches and a quarter, by seventeen and a half : and of wing, five 

 inches and a half to five and three-quarters. 



This beautiful ground- dove is common in thick jungly situations, and 

 especially among dense bamboos, throughout the country ; and it is 

 equally abundant in the Malayan Archipelago. A writer before cited, 

 remarks, — " The rapidity of flight it exhibits, exceeds that of any bird I 

 am acquainted with ; except, perhaps, the brief decisive swoop of some of 

 the smaller Falconidce : as in the progress of the latter, there is no appa- 

 rent motion of the wings, but gliding along a few feet from the ground, 

 diverging or rising just sufficiently to clear intervening obstacles, the 

 ground dove skims with an arrow- like swiftness, and is come and gone 

 in an instant ; scarcely giving the eye time to detect what has crossed 

 the field of vision. When settled on the ground, however, it shews no 



