OCYPHAPS LOPHOTES

We

Crested Pigeon.

Columba Lophotes, Temm. Pl. Col. 142.—Wacl. Syst. Ay. Columba, sp. 103 Steph. Cont. of SI
aS a, Sp. 105.—steph. Cont. of S

vol. xiv. p. 289. pl. 34 1aw’s Gen. Zool..

The Crested Pigeon of the Marshes, Sturt’s two Exp. to tl

ne interior of Southern Austral
Turtur ? Lophotes, Selby, Nat. Lib. Orn.. vol

ia, vol. i. pl. in p. 24.
- v. Pigeons, p. 174. pl. 18.

ee

Tue chasteness of its colouring, the extr ‘leg “its for :

: i i 5? em elegance of its for m, and the graceful crest which flows back-
wards from its occiput, all tend to render this Pigeon one of the most lovely of its tribe inhabiting Australia
. . . . . = : E sae : it
and in fact I consider it is not surpassed in beauty by any other from anv part of the world. It is to be
regretted, that owing to its being exclusively an inhabitant of the plains of tl

1e interior, it can never become
an object of general observation ; but, like tl

1e Peristera histrionica and Geophaps scripta, it can only be seen

= ca £ . ant - aes . Jean > 2 ~ ns : . .
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

Ter ‘eoarde > eolitarv - s OCS i i : ‘ :
country never to be regarded as solitary o1 uninteresting by those who look with admiration upon the
ie interior of Australia has in fact, as I have frequently had
occasion to remark in the course of the present work, features peculiar]

wonderful works of their Creator: the fauna of tl

y 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 pre-
ference 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. “a8

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 of 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. ee

I met with the nest of this species in a low tree, on the great plain near Seailenen on the Lower Namoi,
on the twenty-third of December 1839 ; like that of the other species of Pigeon, it was a slight Sean of
small twigs, Ld 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. i of ee

Head, face, throat, breast and abdomen grey; lengthened occipital plumes a bac 0 the neck, back,
tail-coverts light olive-brown; the upper tail-coverts tipped with white ;

rump, flanks, upper and under ; . os
feathers covering the insertion of the wing deep buff,

sides of the neck washed with pinky salmon-colour ;

each crossed near the tip with a line of deep black, giving yu of ee
margined with white ; primaries brown, becoming of a deepei
g 3

this part of the plumage a barred appearance ;

rF - wing-coverts shining bronzy green,
greater wing-coverts shining bronzy g Py ear
, fourth and fifth finely margined on the apical half of their exte

tint as they approach the body ; the third er ie
a line of white bounding the extremities of both webs ;

web with brownish white, the remainder with a narrow
bronzy purple on their outer |
tail-feathers brown, the remainder blackish brown, glossed
Cc oe oS

-ebs at the base, and brown at the ex-
secondaries brown on their inner webs, webs at ase, <

tremity, broadly margined with white ; two centre a
ned with white ; irid
lack ; tip black; legs and feet pink-red.

es buffy orange ; orbits naked, wrinkled, and
with green on their outer webs, and tip] Fj

of a pink-red ; nostrils and base of the bill olive-b

The figures are of the natural size.

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