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.
[Illustration:
GEOPHAPS PLUMIFERA: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H.C. Richter lithog._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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