Of the nidification of this valuable bird I could gain no precise information. It is a species that bears confinement well, and with an ordinary degree of attention, may doubtless be rendered domesticated and useful.
The sexes present no external difference in the markings of their plumage, but the female is somewhat inferior to her mate in size.
Lores black; forehead and chin white; all the upper surface, wings and tail deep slate-grey; primaries brown; the three lateral tail-feathers on each side tipped with white; sides of the head light grey, gradually passing into the greyish black of the breast, which latter colour is interrupted on each side by a broad line of white which passes obliquely down, and meets on the centre of the breast near the lower margin of the greyish black; feathers of the abdomen and flanks white, the latter with a triangular black spot near the extremity of each feather; under tail-coverts dark brown, largely tipped with buff, particularly on the inner webs; irides very dark brown, surrounded by a narrow pink-red lash; tip of the bill purplish black; base of the bill and the fleshy operculum covering the nostrils pink-red; legs and feet bright pink-red.
The Plate represents the male and female of the natural size.
_J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ]
PERISTERA CHALCOPTERA, _Swains._ Bronze-winged Pigeon.
_Columba chalcoptera_, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 604.—Wagl. Syst. Av. Columba, sp. 57.
_Colombe lumachelle_, Temm. Pig., fol. 2nde fam. pl. 8. p. 17.—Ib. Pig. et Gall., tom. ii. pp. 103 and 448.
_La Tourterelle aux ailes dorées_, Sonn. edit. de Buff., tom. vii. p. 309.
_Bronze-winged Pigeon_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 266.—Phill. Bot. Bay, pl. in p. 162.—White’s Journ., pl. in p. 146.—Shaw, Lev. Mus., p. 227. pl. 55.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. viii. p. 31.—Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xi. p. 17, and vol. xiv. p. 280.
_Peristera chalcoptera_, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 349.
_Phaps chalcoptera_, Selby, Nat. Lib. Orn., vol. v. Pigeons, p. 195. pl. 21.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd edit. p. 75.
_Ȍo-da_, Aborigines of Western Australia.
_Ar-a-wȁr-ra-wa_, Aborigines of Port Essington.
_Bronze Pigeon_, Colonists of Swan River.