Part 12

I was strolling beside the stream at sunrise, when one of these birds rose from the water’s edge, flew to the distance of forty yards, and again alighted on the ground, where it assumed much of the air and actions of a Sand Grouse (_Pterocles_). A fortnight after this I descended the Namoi, about one hundred and fifty miles, and while traversing the extensive plains, studded here and there with patches of trees that skirt the Nundawar range, I was suddenly, but agreeably startled by an immense flock of these birds rising before me, and again alighting on the ground at a short distance; finding they would not admit of near approach, I secreted myself, and desired my aboriginal companion Natty to go round and turn the flock towards me: the whole simultaneously rose as before with a loud burring noise, so closely packed, that had they not passed me at a considerable angle, many must have fallen to my shot; as it was I succeeded in obtaining four, two of which were males. Alarmed at so unusual a sound in these solitudes as the discharge of a gun, the remainder winged their way rapidly out of sight. About a week afterwards, while returning from hunting the kangaroo on a distant part of the same plain, we approached a small group of Myalls (_Acacia pendula_), and Natty suddenly called out, “Look, massa;” in an instant the air before us seemed literally filled with a dense mass of these birds, which had suddenly rose from under the trees at his exclamation; we had scarcely time to raise our guns before they were seventy or eighty yards off; our united discharge, however, brought down eight additional specimens, all of which being merely winged and fluttering about, attracted the attention of our kangaroo dogs, and it was with the greatest difficulty they could be prevented from tearing them to pieces; in the midst of the scramble, a kite, with the utmost audacity, came to the attack, and would doubtless, in spite of our presence, have carried off his share, had not the contents of my second barrel stopped his career. This was the last time I met with the Harlequin Bronzewing. I took every opportunity of making inquiries respecting it of the natives of the interior, and of the stockmen at the out stations, both of whom assured me they had never observed it before the present season. If this assertion be correct, and there seems to be no reason for doubting it, whence has this fine bird made its appearance? Had it always been common in those parts of the country, its size and its beauty must have attracted the attention of the various travellers who have, from time to time, traversed the interior. May we not reasonably suppose that it had migrated from the central regions of this vast continent, which has yet much in store for future discovery? The great length of wing which this bird possesses, admirably adapts it for inhabiting such a country as the far interior is generally imagined to be, since by this means it may readily pass with great ease, and in a short time, over a vast extent of country; this great power of flight is also a highly necessary qualification to enable it to traverse the great distances it is probably often necessitated to do in search of water.

On dissecting the specimens obtained, I found their crops half filled with small hard seeds, which they procured from the open plains, but of what kinds I was unable to determine.

Forehead, stripe from behind the eye, forming a circle round the ear-coverts, and a crescent-shaped mark across the throat snow-white; the remainder of the head, throat and ear-coverts jet-black; all the upper surface, wing-coverts, flanks and two centre tail-feathers deep cinnamon-brown; edge of the shoulder dull white; spurious wing bluish gray, slightly margined with white; primaries brownish gray, margined on their outer web with rufous at the base, largely marked with the same on the inner web, forming a conspicuous patch on the under surface of the wing, and with an oval spot of white at the tip of each feather; secondaries crossed by a beautiful deep crimson bronze on the outer webs near the tip; lateral tail-feathers bluish gray at the base, passing into black toward the extremity, which is white; breast and centre of the abdomen bluish gray; under tail-coverts light buff; nostrils and bill black; bare skin surrounding the eye purplish black; irides dark brown; frontal scales of the legs and feet lilac-red; hind part flesh-red.

The female has only a faint indication of the markings which adorn the male, and is altogether much less brilliant in her appearance.

The figures are those of a male and female of the natural size.

GEOPHAPS SCRIPTA. Partridge Bronze-wing.

_Columba scripta_, Temm. Pl. Col. 187; and in Linn. Trans., vol. xiii. p. 127.—Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiv. p. 284.

_Geophaps scripta_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1842.—G. R. Gray, Appendix to Gen. of Birds, p. 12.

This Pigeon has more than ordinary claims to the attention both of the ornithologist and the epicure, since to the first it is of interest as being a typical example of a minor group of the _Columbidæ_, whose habits and economy are very peculiar, and to the second as a most delicate viand for the table. It is, unquestionably, the best bird I ate while in Australia; and, in my opinion, it is second to none in any other part of the world: the quality of its flesh is so superior to that of the Common Bronze-wing, that the latter cannot for a moment be put in comparison with it; for, as in the Wonga-wonga Pigeon, another most excellent bird for the table, both the upper and under pectoral muscles are white, juicy and delicately flavoured, while in the Common Bronze-wing the upper muscle is brown. It is to be regretted that a bird possessing such high qualifications as an article of food should be so exclusively a denizen of the plains of the interior that it is available to few except inland travellers. It is equally interesting to the sportsman, no other bird not strictly gallinaceous offering so close a resemblance to the members of the genus _Perdix_ (Partridges) in many of its habits and manners as does the Partridge Bronze-wing; and I conceive that in no instance is the theory of the analogical relationship of one group to another more strikingly borne out than in the close resemblance of the members of this group to those of the genus _Perdix_.

When on the ground it has so much the carriage and actions of a Partridge that it might readily be mistaken for one. I sometimes observed it in pairs, but more frequently in small coveys of from four to six in number, which, when approached, instead of seeking safety by flight, ran off with exceeding rapidity in an opposite direction, and crouched down either on the bare plain or among any scanty herbage that appeared to offer the least shelter. It is withal so excessively tame, that it is not unfrequently killed by the bullock-drivers with their whips, while passing along the roads with their teams. The colouring of the bird assimilates so closely to that of the ground or the herbage, that when crouched down for shelter it is not easily to be seen, and they will often lie until it is all but trodden upon. It rises with extreme rapidity, making a loud burring noise with the wings and generally spinning off, not, as might be supposed, to another part of the plain, but to the horizontal branch of a large tree, on which it immediately squats down quite flat, in the same line with the branch, from which it is not easily distinguished or driven off. The shortness of its wings gives it much the appearance of a Partridge during flight, and it also assimilates in the arrow-like direction of its course to the nearest tree, terminating with a skimming motion of the wings before alighting.

The nearest point to the colony of New South Wales in which I met with this bird was the Liverpool Plains, from whence to as far as I proceeded on the Lower Namoi its numbers appeared to increase. I have also heard from other travellers that it is equally abundant on all the plains and banks of the rivers between New South Wales and the Murray in South Australia; but I have never yet observed it in collections either from the northern or western portions of the continent.

The eggs are two in number, and are deposited on the bare ground without any nest. The young both run and fly strongly when they are only as large as a quail, as I satisfactorily ascertained by killing one which rose before me; but at what bird I had fired I had not the slightest conception until I picked it up.

In speaking of this bird as an inhabitant of the plains, I must not fail to mention that it was far more abundant on such as were intersected by rivers and water-holes; in fact, a good supply of water seemed to be essential to its existence. Its chief food is the seeds of various grasses and other small plants, to which are added at some seasons insects and berries.

Head, all the upper surface and chest light brown, the extremities of the wing-coverts and the edges of the primaries being much paler; the outer webs of several of the greater coverts with a speculum of greenish purple obscured, barred with a darker tint; chin and throat, a broad stripe from the lower mandible to beneath the eye, another stripe from the posterior angle of the eye down the side of the neck, and a spot on the side of the neck snow-white, the interspaces being jet-black, the latter colour surrounding the eye, and also forming a crescent across the lower part of the throat; abdomen grey; flanks white; all but the two centre tail-feathers greyish brown at the base and largely tipped with black; bill black; irides black; naked skin surrounding the eye bluish lead-colour; the corners immediately before and behind the eye mealy vinous red; feet and frontal scales dark purplish vinous red.

The figures are of the natural size.

GEOPHAPS SMITHII. Smith’s Partridge Bronze-wing.

_Columba Smithii_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. iii. pl. 104.

_M̏an-ga_, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula.

_Partridge Pigeon_, Residents of Port Essington.

In structure this species is in every respect a true _Geophaps_, and the accompanying notes by Mr. Gilbert show that it as closely assimilates in its habits and economy to the type of the genus as it well can. It appears to be abundant on the north coast of Australia, which is the only part of the country from which I have yet received it.

“This bird,” says Mr. Gilbert, “which at Port Essington is termed the Partridge, from its habits much resembling those of that bird, exhibits a departure in several of its essential characters from the typical Pigeons. In its general habits, flight, voice, mode of incubation, and the character of its newly hatched young, it differs considerably from all its congeners. It is rather abundant in all parts of the Peninsula, is mostly seen in small families and always on the ground, unless when 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 rolled out that it greatly resembles the note of the Quail, and which, like that bird, it scarcely ever utters but when on the ground, where it frequently remains stationary, allowing itself to be almost trod 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.

“This bird incubates from August to October, making no nest, but merely smoothing down a small part of a clump of grass and forming a slight hollow, in which it deposits two eggs, which are greenish white, one inch and a quarter long by seven-eighths of an inch in breadth. The young bird on emerging from the egg is clothed with down like the young of the Quail.”

Eyes surrounded with a large naked space of a bright reddish orange colour; head and all the upper surface olive-brown; throat white, the tips of the last feathers grey, forming a surrounding margin of that colour; on the cheeks a large brownish grey spot, nearly insulated by the large space of the eyes being surrounded by a narrow band of white, the feathers of which are tipped with black; chest reddish brown; on the centre of the breast a few of the feathers are clear grey, margined at the tip with black; breast and abdomen purplish olive-brown; flanks white; lower part of the abdomen and vent buff; primaries and secondaries dark brown, margined with pale brown; the outer webs of the three or four last secondaries, and one or two greater coverts for two-thirds of their length from the base rich purple with greenish wavy reflexions; two centre tail-feathers olive-brown, the remainder deep slate-grey at base and black at the extremity; under tail-coverts dark brown margined with light brown; irides of three colours, first a narrow ring of red next the pupil, then a broader ring of pure white, and lastly a narrow one of grey; bill blackish grey; legs and feet bluish grey; back of the tarsi and inner side of the feet yellowish grey.

The figures are those of a male and female of the natural size.

GEOPHAPS PLUMIFERA, _Gould_. Plumed Partridge Bronze-wing.

_Geophaps plumifera_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1842.

This rare and highly interesting species of Pigeon was sent me by my friend B. Bynoe, Esq., who procured it on the north-west coast of Australia. The notes accompanying the bird informed me that “it inhabits the country between Cape Hotham and the island of Depuch; the specimen sent is from the isolated water reaches about 150 miles up the Victoria River. It congregates on the ground and rises like a Quail, plunging immediately afterwards in the thick long grass.”

In its structure and markings it closely assimilates to the other members of the genus _Geophaps_; but widely differs from them in its diminutive size, and in the possession of a long and graceful crest springing from the occiput, a character which exists in several of the _Gallinacea_, and is familiar to every one in the pretty Pewit or Lapwing (_Vanellus cristatus_) of the British Islands.

Lores and orbits naked, and of a yellowish red; head furnished with a lengthened occipital crest, which with the crown, sides of the neck and chest, and under part of the wing, are light ferruginous; chin black; throat banded alternately with white and black, the latter colour extending to the ear-coverts; on the chest two semilunar marks of white, which meeting form a point in the centre; middle of the abdomen light buff; under tail-coverts brown, with lighter edges; back of the neck, back, rump and upper tail-coverts rufous brown; wings light ferruginous, with the basal half of the feathers silvery grey, the two colours separated by a transverse band of black; primaries rufous brown; secondaries brown, with a large patch of bronze-purple towards their tips; tail black; bill black; feet reddish brown.

The figures are of the natural size.

OCYPHAPS LOPHOTES. Crested Pigeon.

_Columba Lophotes_, Temm. Pl. Col. 142.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, sp. 103.—Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xiv. p. 289. pl. 34.

_The Crested Pigeon of the Marshes_, Sturt’s two Exp. to the interior of Southern Australia, vol. i. pl. in p. 24.

_Turtur? Lophotes_, Selby, Nat. Lib. Orn., vol. v. Pigeons, p. 174. pl. 18.

The chasteness of its colouring, the extreme elegance of its form, and the graceful crest which flows backwards from its occiput, all tend to render this Pigeon one of the most lovely of its tribe inhabiting Australia, and in fact I consider it is not surpassed in beauty by any other from any part of the world. It is to be regretted, that owing to its being exclusively an inhabitant of the plains of the interior, it can never become an object of general observation; but, like the _Peristera histrionica_ and _Geophaps scripta_ it can only be seen by those of our enterprising countrymen whose love of exploring new countries prompts them to leave for a time the haunts of civilized man to wander among the wilds of the distant interior, a portion of the country never to be regarded as solitary or uninteresting by those who look with admiration upon the wonderful works of their Creator: the fauna of the interior of Australia has in fact, as I have frequently had occasion to remark in the course of the present work, features peculiarly its own, and its members are eminently interesting both for their novelty and for the beauty and elegance of their form.

As might be supposed, this bird has attracted the notice of all our travellers who have journeyed across the colonial line of demarcation; Captain Sturt mentions it as being numerous on the plains of Wellington valley, and in the neighbourhood of the Morumbidgee. It would seem to affect marshy situations in preference to others, for Captain Sturt observes that he took its appearance to be a sure sign of his approach to a country more than ordinarily subject to overflow; since, on the Macquarie and the Darling, those birds were only found to inhabit the regions of marshes, or spaces covered by the _Acacia pendula_ or the _Polygonum junceum_. The locality nearest the coast line that I know it to inhabit, is the country near the great bend of the river Murray in South Australia, where it is tolerably abundant; it abounds on the plains at the back of Moreton Bay on the banks of the river Namoi, and is occasionally, but very rarely, seen on the Liverpool Plains. It frequently assembles in very large flocks, and when it visits the lagoons or river-sides for water, during the dry seasons, generally selects a single tree, or even a particular branch, on which to congregate; very great numbers perching side by side, and all descending simultaneously to drink: so closely are they packed while thus engaged, that I have heard of dozens of them being killed by the single discharge of a gun.

Its powers of flight are so rapid as to be unequalled by those of any member of the group to which it belongs; an impetus being acquired by a few quick flaps of the wings, it goes skimming off apparently without any further movement of the pinions. Upon alighting on a branch it elevates its tail and throws back its head, so as to bring them nearly together, at the same time erecting its crest and showing itself off to the utmost advantage.

I met with the nest of this species in a low tree, on the great plain near Gundermein on the Lower Namoi, on the twenty-third of December 1839; like that of the other species of Pigeon, it was a slight structure of small twigs, and contained two white eggs, which were one inch and a quarter long and nearly an inch broad, upon which the female was then sitting.

The sexes are alike in plumage.

Head, face, throat, breast and abdomen grey; lengthened occipital plumes black; back of the neck, back, rump, flanks, upper and under tail-coverts light olive-brown; the upper tail-coverts tipped with white; sides of the neck washed with pinky salmon-colour; feathers covering the insertion of the wing deep buff, each crossed near the tip with a line of deep black, giving this part of the plumage a barred appearance; greater wing-coverts shining bronzy green, margined with white; primaries brown, becoming of a deeper tint as they approach the body; the third, fourth and fifth finely margined on the apical half of their external web with brownish white, the remainder with a narrow line of white bounding the extremities of both webs; secondaries brown on their inner webs, bronzy purple on their outer webs at the base, and brown at the extremity, broadly margined with white; two centre tail-feathers brown, the remainder blackish brown, glossed with green on their outer webs, and tipped with white; irides buffy orange; orbits naked, wrinkled, and of a pink-red; nostrils and base of the bill olive-black; tip black; legs and feet pink-red.

The figures are of the natural size.

PETROPHASSA ALBIPENNIS, _Gould_. White-quilled Rock Dove.

_Petrophassa albipennis_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 173.

This highly singular species of Pigeon is an inhabitant of the most rugged, rocky and sterile districts of the north-west coast of Australia. The specimens in my possession were sent me by the Officers of the Beagle, but, I regret to say, were unaccompanied by any particulars respecting their history. The form of the wing would lead us to imagine that in many parts of its economy this species much resembles those of the members of the genus _Geophaps_; but on these points nothing can be ascertained with certainty, until the productions of those remote parts of Australia have been carefully investigated, a period which, from the inhospitable character of the country, I fear is far distant.

Crown of the head and neck greyish brown, margined with sandy brown; all the upper surface, chest and tail rufous brown, the centre of each feather inclining to grey; lores black; abdomen and under tail-coverts chocolate brown; throat clothed with small feathers white at the tip, black at the base; primaries dark brown at their tips, the basal half pure white; bill and irides blackish brown; feet reddish brown.

The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size.

GEOPELIA HUMERALIS. Barred-shouldered Ground-Dove.

_Columba humeralis_, Temm. Pl. Col. 191.

_Mangrove Pigeon_, resident at Port Essington.