GEOPELIA CUNEATA.
Graceful Ground-Dove. |

Columba cuneata, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. 61.—Wael. Syst. Av.

Macquarie, Quoy et Gaim. Voy. de l'Uranie, Ois.,
———— spiloptera, Vig. in Zool. Journ., vol. vy. De 27s
Geopelia cuneata, List of Brit. Mus. Coll., Part III. Deakie
Men-na-brun-ka, Aborigines of the mountain districts of We
Turtle Dove, Colonists of Swan River.

» Sp. 107. | |
t. 31.—Ib. Knip et Prevost, Hist. Nat. des Pict. 40

 

stern Australia.

 

Tue beautiful little Dove here represented is at once remarkable for the elegance of its contour, the chaste
and quiet colouring of its plumage, and for its tame and gentle disposition, all

it a general favourite with the Australians ; and it is

of which combine to render
a matter of surprise to me that it has not long ere
this been a denizen of their aviaries and sent alive to England, few birds being likely to bear confinement
more contentedly. : ;

I have specimens collected in every one of the Australian colonies, even that of Port Essington ; I en-
countered it myself on the flat and fertile districts of the Upper Hunter in New South Wales, and James
Macarthur, Esq., informed me that it is sometimes seen on his estate at Camden ; at the same time, as it is
rarely met with on the seaside of the mountain ranges, but occurs in considerable numbers on the plains of
the interior, so far as they have yet been explored, it must be regarded as an inhabitant of the central
portion of the country, over the whole of which vast space it is doubtless numerously dispersed.

Its natural food being the seeds of grasses and leguminous plants, it is observed more frequently on the
ground than among the trees; I sometimes met with it in small flocks, but more often in pairs or singly.
It runs over the ground with a short bobbing motion of the tail, and while feeding is so remarkably tame as
almost to admit of its being taken by the hand, and if forced to take wing it merely flies to the nearest
trees, and there remains motionless among the branches until it again descends to the ground. I not
unfrequently observed it close to the open doors of the huts of the stock-keepers of the interior, who, from
its being so constantly before them, regard it with little interest.

The nest is a frail but beautiful structure, formed of the stalks of a few flowering grasses, crossed and in-
terwoven after the manner of the other pigeons. One sent me from Western Australia is ‘* composed,”
says Mr. Gilbert, “‘ of a small species of knotted everlasting-like plant (Composita), and was placed on the
overhanging grasses of the Xanthorrhea; but the bird usually constructs a very loosely formed nest in the
fork of a tree. During my first visit to this part of the country only two situations were known as places |
of resort for this species, and I did not meet with more than five or six examples ; since that period it has | |
become extremely abundant, and now a pair or two may occasionally be seen about most of the settlers
houses on the Avon, becoming apparently very tame and familiarized to man. It utters a rather singular
note, which at times very much resembles the distant crowing of a cock. The term Men-na-brun-ka is
applied to it by the ie from a traditionary idea that the bird originally ee the Men-na, a kind of
gum which exudes from a species of 4cacia, and which is one of the favourite articles of food of the
natives.” ;

The eggs are white and two in number, eleven-sixteenths of an inch long by seven-sixteenths broad.

. eeene anc ac -- may be readily distinguished by the
The sexes, although bearing a general resemblance to each other, maj adil) g ;

smaller size of the female, by the browner hue of her wing-feathers, and by the spotting of her upper sur- |

face not being so numerous or so regular as 1n the male. 7 ic chibneted ee ;
A “rev. passing’ I white on the abdomen ¢ or tall-

The male has the head, neck and breast delicate grey, passing into : )

: Bre Peele ere ONG ve . Wl 1o-coverts |
coverts ; back and scapularies cinnamon-brown; wing-coverts dark grey ; each feather of the wing i
and scapularies with two spots, one on the edge of either web Heal t eS
imaries brown, the latter rufous on their mner webs for two-thirds of their length ;
Bee and with black shafts; the remainder

he tip, of white encircled with black

spurious wing and pr
four centre tail-feathers grey, deepening into black at the ae th = ixides daesolue Anne een
greyish black at the base, and pure white for the remainder of their length ; 1rides 1n s g
red, and the naked skin round the eyes light scarlet ;
pale greenish yellow; bill dark olive-brown ; feet reddish flesh-co

The female differs in having the back of the head, neck and upper
wings larger than the male. |

The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.

 

in others the irides and naked skin round the eyes are |
lour in some instances, in others yellowish.

surface browner, and the spots on the