KEY WEST QUAIL-DOVE 451 



and measure 31.5 by 24 millimeters. I found nests between tbe months of 

 February and July. 



Dr. Juan Vilaro wrote Major Bendire that " the nest is placed 

 in high trees as a rule, usually Cui-ujeyes. It commences breeding 

 in February and lays until July. The eggs are two in number, ochra- 

 ceous white in color, and measure 31 by 24 millimeters." 



Eggs. — Audubon (1840) was evidently mistaken in reporting the 

 eggs of this dove as white, to which no one else agrees. Bendire 

 (1892) evidently never saw the eggs, which he quotes as " ochra- 

 ceous white." Eggs in my collection, and others that I have seen, are 

 cream color, or a pale shade of " cream-buff " ; and this color is 

 fairly permanent in cabinet specimens. The measurements of eight 

 eggs average 30 by 22.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 32.8 by 22.6, 31.3 by 23.6, 27.7 by 22.4, and 31.4 

 by 22.3 millimeters. 



Plumages. — C. J. Maynard (1896) describes the nestling as " dark 

 ashy brown, becoming considerably lighter below; feet pink; bill 

 yellow, red at base; and iris red in all stages." Audubon (1840) 

 says : " The young, when fully feathered, are of a dark gray color 

 above, lighter below, the bill and legs of a deep leaden hue. I am 

 inclined to believe that they attain their full beauty of plumage the 

 following spring." 



Eidgway (1916) describes the young as 



very different in coloration from adults. Above rufous-cinnamon or pecan 

 brown, the scapulars, interscapulars, and wing-coverts narrowly tipped or 

 terminally margined with cinnamon-buff, the pileum and hindneck duller (more 

 brownish) with indistinct, very narrow lighter tips to the feathers, the fore- 

 head light grayish brown ; a dull white malar-subocular stripe, as in adults ; 

 foreneck and chest grayish brown or drab, the feathers margined with dull 

 cinnamon ; rest of under parts mostly pale grayish buffy. 



Food. — Audubon (1840) says: "Their food consists of berries and 

 seeds of different plants, and when the sea-grape is ripe, they feed 

 greedily upon it." Doctor Vilaro reports " fruits, seeds, and small 

 snails " among the food. 



Behavior. — Audubon (1840) writes: 



The flight of this bird is low, swift, and protracted. I saw several after- 

 wards when they were crossing from Cuba to Key West, the only place in 

 which I found them. It flies in loose flocks of from five or six to a dozen, with 

 flappings having an interval apparently of six feet, so very low over the sea, 

 that one might imagine it on the eve of falling into the water every moment. 

 It is fond of going out from the thickets early in the morning, for the purpose 

 of cleansing itself in the shelly sand that surrounds the island ; but the instant 

 it perceives clanger it flies off to the woods, throws itself into the thickest part 

 of them, alights on the ground, and runs off with rapidity until it thinks itself 

 secure. The jetting motions of its tail are much like those of the Carolina 

 dove, and it moves its neck to and fro, forward and backward, as pigeons are 

 wont to do. 



