THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Two specimens from tlie Coongan River, North-west Australia, are everywhere paler, 
but the measurements are the same. I do not, however, attach much importance 
to this, as an example collected at Alexandria in the Northern Territory, by 
the late W. Stalker, is identical in coloration with others from New South Wales. 
Nest. “ A small, slight platform, about two or three inches in diameter, composed of twigs 
and rootlets, or just sufficient materials to ensure the safety of the contents. Usually 
placed on a horizontal Kmb of a tree, where branches or suckers shoot, often 
overhanging a stream ” (Campbell). 
Eggs. Clutch, two : a clutch from the Dawson River, North Queensland, is pure white, 
smooth and glossy. Axis, 21-22 mm. ; diameter, 15. 
Breeding season. August to January, but practically all the year round. 
Sturt* says: “This bird also frequents the banks of the Darling and the 
Murray. ... I first heard it on the marshes of the Macquarie, but could not 
see it. The fact is that it has the power of throwing its voice to a distance, 
and I mistook it for some time for the note of a large bird on the plains, and 
sent a man more than once with a gun to shoot it, without success.” 
Mr. H. L. White, writing from Scone, says : “I have lately noticed a 
peculiarity about the nesting habits of this Dove, of which two pairs have built 
in Peach trees in the orchard here. The orchard is surrounded by a very high 
hedge of Schinus malle (Pepper- tree) : the birds have constructed their nests 
almost entirely of bunches of the bright red berries from this tree, and, as 
similar bunches have blown into many other fruit trees the two nests are very 
hard to distinguish. In both cases the bird sat on the nest for more than ten 
days before an egg was laid ; the two eggs were laid on consecutive days, the 
birds then sitting very closely, and allowing one to approach quite near. The 
dates of laying were the 10th and 13th of October. One nest was 6 feet from 
ground ; the other 7 ft. 6 in.” 
Mr. Charles Belcher tells me that this Dove very seldom comes south of 
the dividing range in Victoria, but in 1904 a pair were seen near the coast. He 
has observed small flocks of seven or eight individuals on the banks of the 
Goulburn River, near Wyuna. 
Mr. Tom Carter says the species occurred sparingly in the dense scrub 
bordering the Gascoyne River in North-west Australia. He shot a specimen in 
January, 1901. 
The birds figured were both females ; the figure in the foreground is from 
New South Wales ; the other, from the Coongon River, in North-west Australia, was 
shot in November, 1908. 
* Narr. Exp. Gent. Austr., II., App., p. 45. 
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