_J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
GEOPELIA CUNEATA.
Graceful Ground-Dove.
_Columba cuneata_, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. 61.—Wagl. Syst. Av., sp.
107.
—— _Macquarie_, Quoy et Gaim. Voy. de l’Uranie, Ois., t. 31.—Ib. Knip
et Prevost, Hist. Nat. des Pig., t. 41
—— _spiloptera_, Vig. in Zool. Journ., vol. v. p. 275.
_Geopelia cuneata_, List of Brit. Mus. Coll., Part III. p. 11.
_Men-na-brun-ka_, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western
Australia.
_Turtle Dove_, Colonists of Swan River.
The 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 of which combine to render
it a general favourite with the Australians; and it is 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 encountered 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 interwoven 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
_Xanthorrhœa_; 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 is _Men-na-brun-ka_ is applied to it by the
natives from a traditionary idea that the bird originally introduced the
_Men-na_, a kind of gum which exudes from a species of _Acacia_, 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.
The sexes, although bearing a general resemblance to each other, may be
readily distinguished by the smaller size of the female, by the browner
hue of her wing-feathers, and by the spotting of her upper surface not
being so numerous or so regular as in the male.
The male has the head, neck and breast delicate grey, passing into white
on the abdomen and under tail-coverts; back and scapularies
cinnamon-brown; wing-coverts dark grey; each feather of the wing-coverts
and scapularies with two spots, one on the edge of either web near the
tip, of white encircled with black; spurious wing and primaries brown,
the latter rufous on their inner webs for two-thirds of their length;
four centre tail-feathers grey, deepening into black at the extremity
and with black shafts; the remainder greyish black at the base, and pure
white for the remainder of their length; irides in some instances bright
red, and the naked skin round the eyes light scarlet; in others the
irides and naked skin round the eyes are pale greenish yellow; bill dark
olive-brown; feet reddish flesh-colour in some instances, in others
yellowish.
The female differs in having the back of the head, neck and upper
surface browner, and the spots on the wings larger than the male.
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.
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