THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
under aspect of tail grey, tipped with yellow ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 
grey ; “ Bill greenish-black, tip horn-colour ; iris reddish-orange, eye-lid yellowish- 
green ; feet ohve-brown ” (J, Gould). Total length 225 mm. ; culmen, 19 ; wing, 
135 ; tail, 67 ; tarsus, 18. 
Adult female. Very similar to the male, but not so brightly coloured and with the under 
tail-coverts yellow, instead of orange. Total length, 215 mm. ; culmen, 17 ; 
wing, 122 ; tail, 63 ; tarsus, 18. 
Nest. Placed about 50 feet from the ground. “ A very slight platform, 5 or 6 inches across 
and about 2 inches in thickness, composed of dry twigs placed in a slender horizontal 
fork. The contents may be easily seen through the nest from beneath ” (Campbell). 
Eggs. “ Clutch, one ; an ellipse in form ; texture of shell fine ; surface glossy ; colour 
white. Dimensions in inches, 1.16 by .81. A smaller and narrower example 
measures 1.08 by .73 ” (Campbell). 
Breeding season. October to February (Ramsay). 
Mr. Broadbent* says : “ The Red-crowned Fruit Pigeon is to be found 
in all the Cardwell Scrubs in September, while on its summer migratory 
journey southward. The time of its return to the Cape York district 
is March, and it is most abundant there during the winter months following, 
being quite absent in summer. The bird does not breed at Cardwell, its 
passage through this part being merely a stage of its journey to South 
Queensland, which it reaches in October. Being a true fruit eater, it is to be 
found in the scrubs which clothe the ranges and border the rivers all the way 
from (Clarence River to Cape York, and is not procurable in inland scrubs, 
such as Chinchilla and Barcaldine. It lives to a large degree on the figs, etc., 
in the scrubs, the little yellow fig seeming to be most favoured. In this district 
the Pigeon feeds in company with Myristicivora assimilis, a congener, and the 
Yellow Fig Bird (Sphecotheres) on a wild fig which attains perfection in May. 
Occasionally, so loth are they to retire from the ripe berries, that I have been 
enabled to confine my shooting operations to one comparatively small fig tree 
for the day. The bird is most prohfic. An idea of its abundance at this place 
may be obtained when I mention that I have obtained nine brace, besides 
numbers of other birds, before an early breakfast.” 
I can confirm the above remarks from my own experience gained between 
the Johnson River and Cardwell in the nineties. 
Mr. A. J. Campbellt says, “ The call of the Red-crowned Fruit Pigeon is 
remarkably loud for so small a bird, being a single ‘ coo ’ repeated twelve 
or thirteen times, . . . the first few ‘ coos ’ being slow and measured, then 
uttered more rapidly each time till the last notes almost run into each other ; 
at the same time the tones become softer and almost inaudible, as if the bird 
were some distance away.” 
The bird figured and described is a male collected at Cape York in June, 
1890. 
* In Campbell’s Nests and Eggs Austr. B., p. 662 (1901). 
t Nests and Eggs Austr. B., p. 662 (1901). 
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