The Emu. 
hardly discern them. The LopJiopJiaps, or Plumed Pigeons 
(Z. ferruginea and L. leucogaster) are of a reddish hue, and 
they are found in Central and North Australia, in bare and 
generally barren country, which suits their colour. They mostly 
construct their nests under the spinifex grass or on the bare 
ground. The male takes his share in incubation, being very little 
different in colour from his mate. The Bronze-wings {Phaps) 
are of a dark grey colour, and they build their nests in the lower 
branches of small trees or shrubs, either among the dead wood 
or grey boughs, which harmonise with their colouring. The 
beautiful Fruit-Pigeons {Ptilopus), of Northern Queensland, 
are, with two exceptions, green on the back, and the male is 
very little brighter in colour than the female. Both take 
their turn in sitting on the egg, the male doing the principal 
share. Their breasts are beautifully coloured, but that is not 
seen from above. They build their nests in a fork at the 
end of a thin bough among the green leaves, and being in dense 
scrub there is no wind to upset them. They are exceedingly 
difficult to recognise from below, and from above probably more 
so. What makes the nests so hard to see is that they are 
composed of so few sticks that the light passes through them, 
making the egg of a flesh-coloured tint. Some of the smaller 
Fruit-Pigeons occasionally nest in bushes, but always near the 
end of a branch. Even when these birds are feeding on the 
fruit among the green leaves, and you hear the fruit-stones 
dropping on the ground beneath, you generally have to look 
carefully for a long time before you can discover them, so 
perfectly are they protected by their colour. One of the 
exceptions I mentioned is the Nutmeg Pigeon {Myristicivora 
spilorrhoa), which is mostly white, but these birds build 
substantial nests, and breed in colonies often of many thousand 
birds, generally on islands off the mainland, which the others 
do not. Then, again, the Little Green Pigeon (Chalcophaps 
cJirysocJilora) is approximately the colour of its surroundings, 
and it is almost invariably found in moist situations where the 
grass is green and near scrub. It builds its nest in a fork of a 
bush among the green leaves, generally within three or four feet 
of the ground. 
The brown inconspicuous colour of Quails is well known; as 
is also how still these birds remain if a hawk is passing, and 
how difficult it is for the bird of prey to catch sight of them as 
they squat on the ground, very similar in colour to themselves. 
Their nests are generally well hidden in tussocks of grass, and 
the eggs, too, are mostly of a brownish colour. The Collared 
Plain Wanderer {^Pedio7ioi]ius torquatus) lays its clutch of three 
or four eggs on the open grassy ground ; but they are coloured 
dark green, and so are protected by colour if not by vegetation. 
In the dense scrub-covered gullies and ranges on the eastern 
coast of Australia are found the Lyre Bird {Menura), Brush 
