14 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
chief food is the seed of leguminous plants, such as 
the various species of Acacia ; at Airey's Inlet they 
get very fat in the autumn on the fallen seeds of the 
Ironbark Scrub {A, verniciflua). 
When first flushed from the ground where it 
feeds, the Bronze-wing flies rapidly and noisily to the 
branch of a tree usually twenty or thirty yards away, 
where it is quite easy of approach. " Moongoobera " 
was the district native name, suggesting well the soft 
and musical yet melancholy note. 
BRUSH BRONZE-WING PIGEON 
Cosmopelia elegans neglecta 
A VERY clear mark of distinction between this bird 
and the larger Bronze-wing is that the latter has the 
throat white, while in the Brush Bronze-wing it is 
yellow. The Brush Bronze-wdng is now a rare 
species (it was probably never common) and its limits 
not easy to deflne. Certainly you will not find it 
anywhere but in the coastal scrubs of the Eastern 
Otway, and probably never east of Airey's Inlet. In 
that locality my friend Mr. Edward de C. Berthon 
has often come upon this species, which in the bush 
is distinguishable as well by its low horizontal flight 
as by its smaller size. Once Mr. Berthon found a 
pair of the pure white eggs laid on the ground in a 
very scrubby part. I have never seen the nest myself, 
but it is stated to be usually built like the Bronze- 
