NAKED-EYED PARTRIDGE-PIGEON. 
The best description I can find of the life-history of this bird is given by 
Gilbert,* who says : “Like G. scripta this bird, which at Port Essington is termed 
the Partridge, differs considerably from its congeners in its general habits, 
flight, voice, mode of incubation, and the character of its newly hatched young. 
It is rather abundant in all parts of the Peninsula, is mostly seen in small families 
and always on the ground, unless disturbed or alarmed ; it then usually 
flies into the nearest tree, generally choosing the largest part of a horizontal 
branch to perch upon. When it rises from the ground its flight is accompanied 
with a louder flapping or burring noise than I have observed in any other pigeon. 
“ Its note is a coo, so roUed out that it greatly resembles the note of the quail, 
and, like that bird, it scarcely ever utters it except when on the ground, where 
it frequently remains stationary, allowing itself to be almost trodden upon before 
rising. Its favourite haunts are meadows covered with short grass near water, 
or the edges of newly burnt brush. It would seem that this species migrates 
occasionally from one part of the country to another ; for during the months of 
September and October not a single individual was to be seen, while at the 
time of my arrival and for a month after they were so abundant that it was 
a common and daily occurrence for persons to leave the settlement for an hour 
or two and return with several brace ; in the latter part of November they again 
appeared, but were not so numerous as before ; and in the January and February 
following they were rarely to be met with, and then mostly in pairs inhabiting 
the long grasses clothing the moister parts of the meadows. 
“ The young bird on emerging from the egg is clothed with down like the 
young of the quail.” 
The bird figured and described is a female and was collected in the South 
Alligator River, Northern Territory, by Mr. J. T. Tunney on August 20th, 1903. 
* Gould’s Handb. B. Axistr., IL, p. 133 (I860). 
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