OCR Text |
Show 1869.] MR. W. V. LEGGE ON PEDIONOMUS. 237 the vicinity of Melbourne in the summer, coming down from the interior along with Coturnix pectoralis, probabhy for the purpose of breeding, and departing northward, I should say, about April. Much of the country round Melbourne, including the district called the Keilor Plains, is in features suited to the habits of the " Collared Plain Wanderer;" and one or two individuals fall every season to the gun of the sportsman, as it is found in the same localities as the Pectoral Quail. It was in the vicinity of the Keilor Plains that I met last January with this singular bird; and as the locality I found it in was a field of short English grass, I had, fortunately, ample opportunity of observing minutely for some time its actions and deportment. In these it has every resemblance to a grallatorial, and, as far as can be seen from short observation, very little to a rasorial bird. It runs at a medium pace hither and thither, checking itself and pausing at times, at the same time twisting about its high-carried head like a member of the Plover family. When in a state of quiescence, it holds itself erect with its head raised. Its mode of flight, however, is entirely peculiar to the bird itself; it rises suddenly, and for a little space proceeds with a dipping Finch-like motion, and then settles down into a steady fluttering flight, reminding one somewhat of a young Lark. A very peculiar feature was exemplified in a second individual (the mate of the bird the actions of which I have just^described), which, after I had flushed it several times, flew off and perched on the lower rail of a " post-and-rail" fence ; it remained in this position for a couple of minutes, and then again took flight. What I would wish here to call particular attention to is the egg of Pedionomus torquatus, which I took perfect in shape and coloration out of the specimen now before me. It was very large for the bird and was Plover-like, being pyriform and of the exact shape and dimensions of the egg of Charadrius hiaticula. It was of a greenish white ground-colour, blotted and speckled, principally at the larger end, and faintly streaked throughout, with umber-brown and lilac-grey. In form, then, the egg resembles that of a Wader, though the coloration is somewhat peculiar. As some authors arrange this bird in the family of the Turni-cidee, while Bonaparte regards it as belonging to Coturnix (solely on account of the presence of the hallux, I suppose), it seems a disputed point where to place it exactly. To the mind of the inquiring though inexperienced naturalist the subject presents some difficulties, as the bird appears intermediate between the rasorial and grallatorial orders, and to belong to a separate group. Its habits and actions, the shape of its head and bill (which latter is longer than that of other members of the Bustard-quail family), its length of leg (especially that of the tibial joint, so much of which is bare), the delicate structure of the leg, moreover, and its feet, its Bustard-like upper plumage, and chiefly its egg place it somewhat near the Grallatores; while its diminutive size, the contour of its body, and the Quail-like tail show its affinities to the rasorial birds. |