THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
long under tail-coverts blackish, paler on the outer webs ; “ Bill black ; iris black ; 
naked skin surrounding the eyes bluish-lead-colour, the corner immediately before 
and behind the eye mealy vinous red ; feet and frontal scales dark purplish-vinous- 
red ” (J.* * * § Gould). Total length, 325 mm. ; culmen, 22 ; wing, 148 ; tail, 110 ; 
tarsus, 25. 
Nest. “ A little hollow, scooped in the ground, about an inch deep, and lined more or less 
with dead, soft grass, sometimes sheltered by herbage ” (Campbell). 
Eggs. Clutch, two. A clutch from the Dawson River, North Queensland, are creamy-white, 
smooth and glossy. Axis, 30-31 mm. ; diameter, 21-22. 
Breeding season. September to January, but breeds at almost any period of the year 
(Campbell). 
Incubation-'period. In captivity seventeen days (Newman). 
This Pigeon is fairly plentiful on the Basalt River, in North Queensland, and 
I have often killed one with my stock-whip, as it crouched down endeavouring 
to hide itself. The excellence of its flesh makes it much sought after 
stockmen and others. It moves about in small flocks, and when disturbed 
the individuals scatter and endeavour to hide, being then very hard 
to flush. 
Gould* says : “ When it does rise, it flies with extreme rapidity, making 
a loud burring noise with the wings and generally spinning off to another part 
of the plain, or to the horizontal branch of a tree, on which it immediately squats 
in the same line with the limb, from which it is not easily distinguished or driven 
off.” 
When in the Isaac River, in Queensland, in 1844, Leichhardt j" mentions 
that coming upon some native wells in the bed of the river he noticed that 
“ Pigeons (Geophaps scripta) had formed a beaten track:|; to its edge ; and the 
next morning, whilst enjoying our breakfast under the shade of a gigantic 
flooded-gum tree, we were highly amused to see a flight of fifty or more Partridge- 
Pigeons tripping along the sandy bed of the river, and descending to the 
water’s edge, and returning after quenching their thirst, quite unconscious of 
the dangerous proximity of hungry ornithophagi.” 
Correcting a statement of Gould’s that “ The young both run and fly 
strongly when they are only as large as a quail,” Mr. Charles Barnard§ says : 
“ I have seen them fly when only the size of a large Quail, but any person could 
see it was the weak, uncertain flight of a young bird, and when they alight 
they will allow themselves to be picked up without attempting to escape. I do 
not think they leave the nest, until they are able to fl}^” 
* Handb. B. Austr., II., p. 131 (1865). 
Journ. Ove.rl. Exp. in Austr., p. 155 (1847). 
J This track may have been formed by Bush Rats. 
§ In Campbell’s Nests and Eggs Austr. B., p. 690 (1901). 
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