372 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Wilson (1832) says: 



The young are distinguished by duller tints, and the crown is at first nearly 

 uniform with the rest of their dark plumage ; this part, after a time, changes 

 to grey, then greyish white, and becomes whiter and whiter as the bird grows 

 older. 



Gosse (1847) writes of some squabs that he raised in captivity: 



Both were exceedingly ugly ; long-necked, thin-bodied, the head not well 

 rounded, the fleshy part of the beak prominent, and its base unfeathered. 

 The whole plumage was blackish ash-colored, each feather slightly tipped 

 with paler, and the feather of the head terminating in little curled grey 

 filaments, which added to the uncouth appearance of the birds. In a week 

 or two I perceived these filaments were gradually disappearing, and about 

 the beginning of October the small feathers began to clothe the base of the 

 beak ; these feathers were greyish-white, and at the same time the grey hue 

 was beginning to spread up the forehead, I believe, by the dropping of the 

 black feathers and their immediate replacement by the white ones. About 

 this time also the general plumage began to assume the blue hue of the adult, 

 in patches ; and on the 12th of October, I first observed the beautiful iridesceut 

 feathers of the neck, but as yet only on one side. These notes refer to the 

 elder ; the other was about two weeks more backward. On the 16th, I first 

 heard it coo ; for some time it had now and then uttered a single note, but on 

 this day it gave the whole Sary-coat-'blue, but short, and in a low tone; and 

 that only once. By the end of November the white had spread over the 

 whole crown, as in the adult; but was not yet so pure or so smooth. 



I have seen several young birds, both males and females, appar- 

 ently in first-winter plumage, taken at various dates from December 

 14 to May 16, that had evidently matured more slowly or were, per- 

 haps, hatched later. They all had dull gray or dirty white crowns 

 and were otherwise like adult females, except that they had no scaly 

 markings on the neck; the neck and mantle were dull brown, with 

 darker edgings; the wing coverts and scapulars had narrow light 

 tips. There was a mixture of new plumbeous, adult plumage in the 

 back, and the wings and tail were either molting or had been re- 

 cently renewed, showing that young birds at least have a complete 

 molt in winter and spring. I have been unable to learn anything 

 about the molts of adults. 



Food. — Gosse (1847) gives a very good account of the feeding 

 habits of the " baldpate," as he calls this pigeon ; he writes : 



When the pimento is out of season, he seeks other food ; the berries of the 

 sweetwood, the larger ones of the breadnut, and burn-wood, of the bastard cedar, 

 and the fig, and the little ruddy clusters of the fiddle-wood, attract him. He 

 !'<■■ ds early in the morning, and late in the afternoon; large numbers resort to a 

 single tree (though not strictly gregarious), and when this is observed, the 

 sportsman, by going thither before dawn, and lying in wait, may shoot them 

 one by one, as they arrive. In September and October they are in fine condition, 

 often exceedingly fat and juicy, and of exquisite flavour. In March the clammy- 

 cherry displays its showy scarlet racemes, to which the Bald-pates flock. The 



