RUDDY QUAIL-DOVE 453 



OREOPELEIA MONTANA (Linnaeus) 

 RUDDY QUAIL-DOVE 



HABITS 



On December 8, 1888, a boy at Key West, Fla., shot a red dove, 

 which was sold with some mourning doves and plucked. That keen 

 ornithologist, J. W. Atkins, secured the remains, the head and some 

 wing and tail feathers, and sent them to W. E. D. Scott (1889) who 

 published the first Florida record of this West Indian species. A 

 second record for the same locality was published by Ned Hollister 

 (1925), when he reported the receipt at the National Zoological 

 Park of a living specimen of this dove, caught by Ross E. Sawyer, 

 in his backyard in Key West, about May, 1923. 



Dr. Thomas Barbour (1923) says of the haunts of the ruddy 

 quail-dove in Cuba: 



With habits essentially like those of the preceding, this forest beauty is much 

 more abundant and more confiding. By standing watching some little sunlit 

 glade, or lying flat on one's belly on the damp forest floor, patience was 

 generally rewarded by a shot at the ruddy quail doves, provided one chose a 

 suitable haunt in which to lie in wait. None of the quail doves occur in all 

 situations where, from the character of the terrain, one might expect them. 

 They were really abundant, however, in the low woods between Zarabanda and 

 San Francisco de Morales and the Zapata Swamp, and equally so in a very fine 

 stretch of damp woods which I have visited but once, far to the south of 

 Bolondron. 



Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1927), referring to Porto Rico, writes: 



The ruddy quail-dove is an inhabitant of dense growths of jungle and finds 

 cover to its liking mainly in the hills and mountains above the coastal plain. 

 It is probable that its distribution is governed somewhat by the abundance 

 of the mongoose near the coast, since from its terrestrial habits the dove is 

 subject to depredation by this mammal. 



At times the ruddy quail-dove is seen in coffee plantations, where these are 

 not kept too clean of brush, but it is usually found in areas of dense second 

 growth on the slopes of hills. As such cover becomes restricted in area, these 

 doves grow steadily less abundant. To observe them it is necessary to walk 

 noiselessly along footpaths, crouching low to obtain what vision may be had 

 of the ground beneath the dense brush. 



Nesting. — Writing of the tropical wild life of British Guiana, 

 William Beebe (1917) gives a good description of the nesting habits 

 of this dove, as follows : 



Though one of the tropical jungle residents, the red mountain dove was 

 seldom seen, for it merged so completely with its surroundings that one passed 

 it by, time after time, without ever knowing that such a bird existed. If it 

 were discovered, careful watch had to be kept or it would seemingly disappear 

 where it sat. The nest was equally difficult to find and usually could only be 

 discovered by frightening the bird from the eggs. If it thought there were a 



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