Order C0LUMBIF0RME8 
Family COLUMBID^. 
No. 42. 
PETROPHASSA RUFIPENNIS. 
CHESTNUT-QUILLED ROCK-PIGEON. 
(Plate 39.) 
Petrophassa RtrrrPENNis Collett, P.Z.S., p. 354 (1898), Head of the South AUigator River, 
Northern Territory. 
Petrophassa sp. Leichhardt, Journ. Overl, Exp. in Austr., p. 476 (1847). 
Petrophassa rufipennis CoUett, P.Z.S., p. 354, PI. XXVIII. (1898) ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs 
Austr. B., p. 688 (1901) ; Hartert, Nov. ZooL, XII., p. 197 (1905) ; HaU, Key B. 
Austr., p. 72 (1906) ; Mathews, Handl. B. Austral., p. 11 (1908) ; id., Emu, IX., p. 98 
(1909). 
Distribution. Arnhem Land ; Northern Territory. 
Adult male. The feathers of the upper-surface, as well as those of the breast, grey, margined 
with brown ; throat and a narrow line above and below the eye white ; sides of 
face also inclining to white ; bastard-wing blackish ; primary-coverts chestnut, 
blackish at the tips ; primary-quills chestnut, margins of the outer webs towards the 
ends, and the tips blackish ; secondaries dark brown ; tail blackish, as also the 
axillaries and lesser under wing-coverts ; quiUs below, greater, and a few of the lesser, 
wing-coverts chestnut ; “ Bid black ; iris brown ; feet black ” (J. T. Tunney). 
Total length, 345 mm. ; culmen, 21 ; wing, 151 ; tail, 145 ; tarsus, 22, 
Adult female. Differs from the adult male only in having metallic spots on a few of the 
scapular feathers. Total length, 310 mm. ; culmen, 22 ; wing, 152 ; tail, 131 ; 
tarsus, 22. 
Nest and Eggs undescribed. 
Leichhardt on his overland journey to Port Essington saw this bird near the 
head of the South Alligator River, on the 11th November, 1845, but no specimen 
\ \ 
was brought before the scientific world tiU Professor Collett described one from 
the same localitv in 1898. 
ft/ 
Leichhardt* says : “ A new species of rock pigeon (Petrophassa, Gould) 
with a dark brown body, primaries light brown without any white, and the tail 
feathers rather worn, lived in pairs and small flocks like Geophaps, and flew 
out of the shade of overhanging rocks, or from the moist wells which the natives 
had dug in the bed of the creek, around which they clustered like flies round a 
drop of syrup.” 
* Journ. Overl. Exp. Austr., p. 476 (1847), 
159 
