Part 10

This familiar species, the least of the Australian _Psittacidæ_ yet discovered, enjoys a range of habitat precisely similar to that of the _Trichoglossus concinnus_, being dispersed over the whole of New South Wales, South Australia and Van Diemen’s Land; it is, however, more sparingly diffused over the latter country. I found it tolerably abundant and killed several specimens on Maria Island, near the entrance of Storm Bay. On the continent of Australia it is not only to be found in the same districts and at the same seasons of the year as _T. concinnus_, but it is more frequently observed in company with that species than alone; flocks of each often occupying the same tree, and even the same branch, all busily engaged in extracting their nectarine food. Like its near ally, the present bird creeps about under and among the leaves with the greatest facility, and like the other members of the group, appears to be always associated in pairs. As might be expected from the structure of its wing, which is admirably adapted for rapid progression, it flies through the air with arrow-like swiftness.

I succeeded in finding the breeding-places of this species, and on the 11th of October 1839, procured four eggs from a hole in a small branch of a lofty _Eucalyptus_, growing on the flats at Yarrundi on the Upper Hunter. The eggs were white and of an oval form, nine lines and a half long by seven lines and a half broad.

In Western Australia this species is represented by the _Trichoglossus porphyrocephalus_, and on the north coast by the _T. versicolor_. It would appear to inosculate with its western ally in South Australia, both being equally numerous there, around, and even upon the trees within the city of Adelaide.

The sexes are similar in plumage and differ but little in size; the female is, however, rather more diminutive than her mate.

Face deep red; back of the neck brown; all the remainder of the plumage grass-green; primaries, secondaries and greater coverts black, margined externally with grass-green; two centre tail-feathers and outer webs of the remainder grass-green; the inner webs of the lateral feathers fine red at the base, passing into greenish yellow towards the tip; bill black; cere and orbits dark olive-brown; irides orange, surrounded by a narrow line of yellow.

The figures are of the natural size.

PTILINOPUS SWAINSONII, _Gould_. Swainson’s Fruit Pigeon.

_Ptilinopus purpuratus_, var. Regina, Swains. Zool. Journ., vol. i. p. 474?

_Columba purpurata_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. ii. pl. 70.

_Ptilinopus Swainsonii_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1842.

Considerable confusion has existed respecting the very beautiful birds constituting the genus _Ptilinopus_, as to whether they are so many species or merely varieties, and I quite agree with Messrs. Jardine and Selby when they say in their ‘Illustrations’ above quoted, “We strongly suspect that more than one species is involved among these different varieties, which some one in possession of them may hereafter be enabled to determine; and their varied geographical distribution tends considerably to strengthen this opinion.” There are in fact several species of this beautiful form so closely allied that at a casual glance they would be considered as identical, but on a careful comparison their specific differences will be clearly perceived. At least two of them are natives of Australia, the remainder being distributed over the Indian and Polynesian Islands. The present bird has by many authors been considered either as identical with or as a mere variety of the _Columba purpurata_, Auct., but if compared with that species it will be found to possess characters sufficiently different to warrant its being characterized as distinct; I have therefore named it after Mr. Swainson, the author of the genus to which it belongs, as a slight testimony of the respect I entertain for the talents of one who has done so much towards the advancement of ornithology, at once the most interesting and popular branch of the science of natural history.

The specimens from which my figures were taken are from the brushes of the River Clarence, situated between the Hunter and Moreton Bay; in the last-mentioned district it is tolerably abundant, the dense and luxuriant brushes affording it a congenial habitat and breeding-place. I have received both the young and the adults from this locality, but as I have never myself seen them in a state of nature, I am unable to give any account of their habits or economy. The sexes are so nearly alike in colouring that dissection alone can distinguish them with certainty.

Forehead and crown deep crimson-red, surrounded except in front with a narrow ring of light yellow; back of the neck greyish green; all the upper surface bright green tinged with yellow, the green becoming deep blue towards the extremities of the tertiaries, which are broadly margined with yellow; primaries slaty grey on their inner webs and green on the outer, very slightly margined with yellow; tail-feathers deep green, largely tipped with rich yellow; throat greenish grey, stained with yellow on the chin in some specimens and greyish white in others; breast dull green, each feather forked at the end and with a triangular silvery-grey spot at each extremity; flanks and abdomen green, with a large patch of orange-red in the centre of the latter; under tail-coverts orange-yellow; thighs green; irides reddish orange; bill greenish black and horn-colour at tip; feet olive brown.

The figures are of the natural size.

PTILINOPUS EWINGII, _Gould_. Ewing’s Fruit Pigeon.

_Ptilinopus Ewingii_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1842.

This lovely species, which is a native of the Cobourg Peninsula, and doubtless ranges over the northern coast of Australia generally, differs from the preceding, _Ptilinopus Swainsonii_, in being much smaller in all its admeasurements, in the colour of the crown being rose-pink instead of crimson-red; in the breast being pale greenish grey instead of dull green; in having the centre of the abdomen rich orange instead of lilac; and also in having the tail-feathers tipped with greenish yellow instead of clear rich yellow. The specimens from which my figures are taken were fully adult, and were submitted to dissection in order to ascertain the sexes; consequently I am fully convinced, that, although the present and preceding species are very nearly allied, they are specifically distinct.

In naming the second Australian species of this beautiful form after the Rev. Thomas J. Ewing, at present residing in Van Diemen’s Land, I am actuated by a desire to pay a just compliment to one who is perhaps more thoroughly versed in the productions of writers on the interesting science of ornithology than most other persons, and, although so far removed from the seats of knowledge, continues to prosecute his studies with the utmost ardour; I feel assured therefore, that, however objectionable the naming of species after individuals may be under ordinary circumstances, it will not in this instance be deemed an inappropriate mode of evincing my sense of the many admirable qualities of a highly esteemed friend.

Forehead and crown of the head rose-pink, bordered with a narrow line of yellow, except in front; back of the head and neck greenish grey; all the upper surface bright green, passing into deep blue on the tertiaries; primaries, secondaries and tertiaries slightly margined with yellow; tail largely tipped with yellow, tinged with green, particularly on the two centre feathers; chin pale yellow; sides of the neck greenish grey; chest pale greenish grey, each feather forked at the end and tipped with grey; below the chest an indistinct band of sulphur-yellow; flanks and lower part of the abdomen green; centre of the abdomen rich orange, in the middle of which is a lunar-shaped mark of lilac; under tail-coverts orange; thighs and tarsi green; irides orange; feet olive.

The figures are of the natural size.

PTILINOPUS SUPERBUS. Superb Fruit-Pigeon.

_Colombe poukiobou_, _Columba superba_, Temm. Les. Pig., fol. 2nd fam., p. 75. pl. 33.—Ibid. Pig. et Gall., 8vo. tom. i. pp. 277, 474.

This lovely species was originally figured and described in the splendid work on the Pigeons by Madame Knip and my friend M. Temminck as an inhabitant of one of the islands of the Pacific Ocean; and it affords me much pleasure to be enabled to include a representation of it among my illustrations of the Fauna of Australia, specimens having been procured by Mr. Bynoe on Booby Island, which lies off the north coast. In all probability it enjoys an extensive range over the islands of New Guinea as well as over all parts of Northern Australia, wherever suitable situations occur. The specimens procured by Mr. Bynoe were fortunately male and female: the latter sex exhibits in its plumage traces of immaturity; but whether the rich colouring of the crown of the head is at all times absent is a point yet to be ascertained, a knowledge of which would greatly tend to clear up the confusion which reigns throughout this gorgeously-coloured group of Pigeons.

The male has the crown of the head of a very deep rich purple; sides of the head and occiput olive-green; sides and back of the neck bright rufous; shoulders very dark bluish black; all the upper surface and wings deep yellowish green, tinged with rufous; the scapularies and tertiaries with a spot of deep green near the extremity; primaries and secondaries black, slightly margined externally near the tip with pale yellow; tail grey at the base, to which succeeds a broad band of black, glossed particularly on the central feathers with green; beyond this the tips are white, all but the outer ones washed with green; chin white; breast grey, below which a band of black; abdomen and under tail-coverts white, the latter with a stripe of olive down the centre; band crossing the flanks and another crossing the thighs olive-green; feet orange; bill dark horn-colour.

The female has the crown of the head and all the upper surface yellowish green, with a small spot of deep blue near the tips of the scapularies; primaries and secondaries black, slightly edged with yellow; at the occiput a large patch of deep green; chin grey; centre of breast greenish grey; flanks green; centre of abdomen straw-yellow.

The figures are those of the two sexes on a plant of the north coast.

CARPOPHAGA MAGNIFICA. Magnificent Fruit Pigeon.

_Columba magnifica_, Temm. in Linn. Trans., vol. xiii. p. 125.—Ib. Pl. Col. 163.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, sp. 26.—Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 469.

_Carpophaga magnifica_, Selby in Nat. Lib. Orn., vol. v. Pigeons, p. 115.—List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., Part III. p. 5.

This splendid bird, the finest of the Pigeons yet discovered in Australia, is abundant in all the brushes on the south-east portion of that country, but is less numerous in the Illawarra district than in the neighbourhood of the rivers Namoi, Macquarrie, Clarence and MacLeay; how far its range may extend from thence to the northward has yet to be ascertained; I did not observe it in any of the brushes clothing the ranges of the interior. Its chief food is the wild fig and the nut-like fruit of the large palms. It is rather a shy bird, and from its quiet habits is not easily discovered, unless it betrays its presence by the hoarse, loud and monotonous note, which is frequently uttered by the male during the season of love. This note is so extraordinary, and so unlike that of any other bird, that it causes the utmost surprise and wonderment as to what it can proceed from, in the minds of those persons who hear it for the first time.

I regret that the few opportunities I had for studying this fine bird in a state of nature were insufficient for me to obtain any particulars respecting its habits and economy; it appears never to descend to the ground, but to be constantly engaged among the branches in procuring its food; its broad hand-like feet enabling it to cling to the outermost and even the smaller boughs with ease; and hence the utility of these singularly constructed feet, which are common to all the Fruit Pigeons, is readily perceptible.

The sexes present no external difference by which the male can be distinguished from the female; dissection must, in fact, be resorted to, to discriminate the one from the other with certainty, although the smaller-sized individuals may generally be regarded as females.

Head and neck pale grey; all the upper surface and wings rich golden green; the greater coverts and the tertiaries with a patch of light yellow near the base of the outer webs, forming an irregular oblique band across the wing; primaries green; under surface of the wing brown, passing into cinnamon-brown at the base of the feathers; tail rich deep bronzy green; line down the centre of the throat, and the whole of the breast and abdomen rich deep purple; under surface of the shoulder, the thighs and vent deep gamboge-yellow; under tail-coverts greenish grey, washed with gamboge-yellow.

The Plate represents an adult male somewhat less than the natural size.

CARPOPHAGA LEUCOMELA. White-headed Fruit Pigeon.

_Columba leucomela_, Temm. in Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 126.—Ib. Pl. Col., 186.

_Columba leucomelana_, Wagl. Syst. Av., pars i. Columba, sp. 56.

_Columba Norfolciensis_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. lx.?

_Norfolk Pigeon_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. Add. p. 374?—Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p. 30?

This fine species of Pigeon is an inhabitant of those vast primæval forests of New South Wales to which the colonists have applied the name of Brushes. I found it very numerous on Mosquito and the other low islands near the mouth of the river Hunter, as well as in the cedar brushes of the Liverpool range; I believe that it breeds in both those districts; and that it never quits these luxuriant forests is the more probable, as a plentiful supply of fruits and berries is furnished by the various species of trees at every season of the year; the wild fig, the palm-nut and the grape, constitute a considerable portion of its food. I have frequently observed it sweeping over the forests in flocks of from ten to fifty in number, and often seen it also in pairs. It feeds on the wild fig, whose slender branches are borne down by its weight, particularly when it clings to the extreme end of the spray to obtain the best and ripest fruit; in this mode of clinging and in many of its actions it far more resembles the larger Honey-eaters and Parrots than the Pigeons; an examination moreover of the structure of the foot of a typical _Carpophaga_ will show that it deviates from that of the true Pigeons, and that it is beautifully adapted for the duties it is intended to perform. I have never seen this bird on the ground, not even to procure water, and the form of its foot is as little adapted for terrestrial progression, as it is admirably constructed for use among the smaller branches of the trees.

The powers of flight of this species are very great, its voluminous wing enabling it to pass from one part of the forest to another, or to a new district in a comparatively short space of time; hence flocks may frequently be observed passing over the tops of the trees, forsaking a locality they have exhausted of its supplies and in search of another where food is more abundant.

The nest of this species, like that of the other Columbidæ, is a slight flat structure formed of small sticks and twigs; the eggs are frequently only one, and never more than two in number, of a pure white.

The sexes may be distinguished by the smaller size of the female, and by her colours being less strongly contrasted than those of her mate, the yellowish white of the head and breast blending into the darker colouring of the other parts.

The male has the head, neck and breast white, washed with buff, particularly on the crown; all the upper surface, wings and tail greyish black; all the feathers of the back, rump and lesser wing-coverts bordered with bronzy-purple in some, and greenish purple in others; flanks slate-colour; abdomen dingy-buff; bill for two-thirds from the base beautiful pink-red, covered with a mealy substance; tip of the bill yellowish white tinged with lilac; irides large and of a rich yellowish hazel in some specimens, reddish orange in others; naked skin of the orbits mealy pink-red; feet buff, with the scales pink-red and the nails white.

The figures are of the natural size, and represent the bird feeding on one of the fruits of the brushes called wild cherry by the colonists.

CARPOPHAGA LUCTUOSA. Torres Strait Fruit Pigeon.

_Columba luctuosa_, Temm. Pl. Col., 247.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, sp. 23.

_M̏o-koit_, Aborigines of Port Essington.

This bird is commonly known by the name of the Torres Strait Pigeon, from its being so abundant there that few voyagers pass the straits during its breeding-season without encountering it. It arrives in the Cobourg Peninsula at the beginning of November and departs again in April or May. Like every other true _Carpophaga_ it is strictly arboreal, living among the branches of the highest trees and feeding upon various fruits and berries. Mr. Gilbert’s notes respecting it are as follows:—“This bird may generally be seen in great numbers wherever the wild nutmeg is to be found, and so exclusively does it confine itself to the trees in search of food, that during the whole time I was in the country I never saw one rise from the ground, nor did I meet with any person in the settlement who had. It flies very rapidly, and generally mounts up to so great a height as to be beyond the range of a gun. The only time at which I could succeed in procuring specimens was the evening, when it resorts to the mangroves on the small islands lying off the shore, or to the dense thickets a short distance inland; at this time it may be seen arriving in small flocks of from ten to fifteen to roost for the night. Its note, like that of the other pigeons, is a _coo_, but at times, particularly when it has paired, it is much louder and deeper than that of any other species I ever heard.

“It pairs and commences breeding immediately after its arrival in November, and I have obtained eggs as late as the middle of January. The nest is formed of a few sticks laid across one another in opposite directions, and is so slight a structure that the eggs may usually be seen through the interstices from beneath, and it is so flat that it appears wonderful how the eggs are retained upon it when the branch is waving about in the wind; it is usually built on the horizontal branch of a mangrove, and it would seem that it prefers for this purpose a branch overhanging water. That it never lays more than one egg appears to me without a doubt, for upon visiting Table Head River on the eastern side of the harbour of Port Essington I found no less than twenty nests, all of which contained either a single egg or a single young bird.”

The whole of the plumage buffy white, with the exception of the primaries, secondaries and greater wing-coverts, which are greyish black, and the tips of the tail-feathers, which are black, the black becoming of less extent as the feathers recede from the centre of the tail, until the outer feather is only slightly tipped; this feather is also broadly margined with black on the outer web for three-fourths of its length from the base; the under tail-coverts also have an irregular band of black near the tip of each feather; irides dark brown; bill dark greenish grey, except the tip, which is light yellow.

The figure is of the natural size.

LOPHOLAIMUS ANTARCTICUS, _G. R. Gray_. Top-knot Pigeon.

_Columba antarctica_, Shaw, Zool. of New Holl., pl. 5.

_Columba dilopha_, Temm. in Linn. Trans., vol. xiii. p. 124, and Pl. Col. 162.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. xiv. p. 279.—Wagl. Syst. Av., sp. 11.

_Lophorhynchus dilophus_, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 348.

———— _antarcticus_, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 1st Edit., p. 58.

_Lopholaimus antarcticus_, G. R. Gray, Ibid. Appendix to 2nd Edit., p. 12.

Top-knot Pigeon of the Colonists of New South Wales.

Although the specific term of _antarcticus_ is not an appropriate appellation for this noble Pigeon, still it cannot, I think, with strict propriety be sunk into a synonym, since it was first applied to it in a work intended exclusively to illustrate the zoology of New Holland, as will be seen on reference to the synonyms above quoted. I feel assured that my excellent and scientific friend M. Temminck was either unacquainted with the publication alluded to, or that the circumstance of its having been previously described and figured had escaped his memory, when he characterized this bird in the thirteenth volume of the “Linnean Transactions,” and subsequently figured it in his “Planches Coloriées,” under the name of _Columba dilopha_.

I have not yet seen specimens of this Pigeon from the northern or western coast, and it appears to be exclusively confined to the rich and luxuriant districts of the southern and eastern portions of Australia; being particularly abundant in the brushes of Illawarra, the Hunter, the Clarence, &c., where the trees furnish it at all seasons with a plentiful supply of food. So entirely arboreal are its habits, that I never once saw it descend to the ground, or even to the low shrub-like trees. It is strictly gregarious, often traversing the forests in flocks of many hundreds in search of those trees most laden with its favourite fruit; upon discovering which the entire flock alight simultaneously with a rushing noise, clinging to and bearing down the smaller twigs and branches with their weight, for grasping which their broad, hand-like feet seem peculiarly fitted. It is a bird of very powerful flight, and usually flies at a considerable elevation in flocks closely packed together.

Among other substances found in the stomachs of those specimens I dissected, were the wild-fig and the large round berries of the cabbage-palm; and in all probability it also feeds upon other fruits of a still larger size, as its bill and throat are capable of being dilated to such an extent as to admit of a substance as large as a walnut being swallowed entire.

Its flesh is not so good as that of the other members of its family inhabiting Australia, being coarse and dry-eating.

I had no opportunity of observing its nidification, neither could I obtain any information on the subject.

The sexes are alike in plumage, and may be thus described:—