THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
tipped with white ; cro\^Ti of the head and a horse-shoe band on breast and abdomen 
white ; cheeks and throat grey ; fore-neck and a band on each side of breast dark slate- 
grey, like the upper-surface ; some of the feathers on the abdomen, sides of body, 
and flanks have elongated black marks or round spots of black on the middle of the 
feathers ; under tail-coverts brown, with whitish margins. “ Bill black, base 
pink ; iris brown, orbits red ; tarsi and feet pink ” (Moflatt). Total length, 430 mm. ; 
culmen, 31 ; wing, 214 ; tail, 167 ; tarsus, 40. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male in the colour of the plumage, but with smaller 
measurements. 
Immature male. Differs from the adult male in having the outer webs of the secondary 
quids shaded with brown. 
Nest. “ Very frail in structure, composed of sticks or twigs placed on a horizontal branch of 
a tree at a height of from ten to twenty feet above the ground, in scrub or forest ” 
(Campbell). 
Eggs. Clutch, two ; a clutch from the Dawson River, North Queensland, are smooth 
and glossy. Pure white. Axis, 38 mm. ; diameter, 26. 
Breeding season. October to January (Ramsay). Two broods are reared in a season 
(Campbell). 
This bird is fairly common on the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. I have 
frequently come across one (sometimes two) feeding on the ground, on the berries 
that f aU from the “ Lilly-pilly ’ ’ trees. When startled it rises with a clapping noise, 
caused by the wings meeting ; it generally flies along the path, before turning 
'off into the scrub, and offers a very tempting shot to the collector. When it 
perches on a tree, it will remain quite still, till all danger seems to have passed. 
The excellence of its flesh and its large size make these birds much sought after. 
As Mr. Campbell* says : “ Their loud call-notes are readily distinguished from, 
all other Pigeons’, being a rapid, continuous, high-pitched ‘ hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo ’ 
which may be heard half a mile off.” 
Mr. Le Souef,! speaking of this bird in the Riviera district of New South 
Wales, says : “It is comparatively easy to imitate their note and so bring the 
birds within gunshot. On several occasions I have noticed that when the 
male bird has been sitting on the nest and any danger threatens, he lowers 
his head, raises, and slightly spreads his tail, at the same [time] turning his 
back towards the intruder. The effect is to hide the bird’s body and only show 
the upraised tail, which looks like a large flower and is comparatively 
inconspicuous. Like all other species of Australian Pigeons, the male generally 
sits during the day.” 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected at Ourimbah, in New 
South Wales, on April 21st, 1905. 
* Nests and Eggs Auatr. B., p. 697 (1901). 
t Wild Life in Auatr., p. 149 (1907). 
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