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.