THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. P. T. Sandland, writing from Burra, in South Australia, says : “ I have 
taken eggs in April, June, July, August, and September. The birds come in to 
drink either the last thing in the evening, or at dawn. They always settle 
some little distance from the water and walk in.” 
Sturt* says that the habits of this Pigeon are peculiar, insomuch that 
tliey go to water at so late an hour that it is almost impossible to see them. 
Although he often sat at the edge of some pond and watched with noiseless 
anxiet}^, they would get to the water unobserved, and the sharp flap of their 
wings in rising, alone told him that he had missed his game. The natives 
of the Murray set nets across the guUy down which they fly to water on the 
bank of that river, and catch them in great numbers. 
Mr. Keartlandf observes that at all permanent water these birds came 
to drink at sunset, and continued arriving until it was quite dark. The 
flrst-comers were generally young birds, the old ones coming later. They arrived 
singly, and could be heard to drop on the ground with a heavy thud about 
fifty yards from the water. They would then wait preening their feathers until 
joined by several others, when they marched in single file to the water, and, 
having quenched their thirst, rose singly and quickly disappeared. 
Mr. Tom Carter tells me he has found this bird breeding in hollow spouts 
of trees at Broome Hill, West Austraha. 
The male bird figured and described was collected by Mr. J. P. Rogers 
at Parry’s Creek in September, 1908. 
* Narr. Exp. Centr. Austr.f II„ App., p. 41. 
Rep. Horn. 8c. Exp., p. 98. 
148 
