BIRDS OF CUBA 73 



prefers to run away from an annoyance rather than take flight. I have 

 collected a good many by lying prone on the forest floor and simply watching 

 for the bird to walk about. Much of the lowland forest in Cuba is flooded 

 during the rainy season, often for several feet, and this eliminates the very 

 low undergrowth, so that one may often see long distances with the eyes 

 near the level of the ground. Standing up, it is impossible to see off at all, 

 so thick are the vines and creepers. In 191 5 I found Perdizes very common 

 in the low woods about five miles inland from Jucaro and Palo Alto. I shot 

 a good many, and the guajiros had dozens caged to sell to the planters 

 about Ciego de Avila, who eat them. This forest today is largely gone. 

 About the cayos of the Cienaga where I got the other Ground Pigeons in 

 numbers, the Blue-headed Doves were very rare, although I shot a few 

 specimens. In Oriente the bird is still common where it has not been 

 trapped too hard, and here it occurs in the highland forest where also 

 suitable open woods are sometimes to be found. 



129. Oreopeleia chrysia (Bonaparte). 

 Key West Quail Dove; Torito or Barbequejo. 



This Ground Dove has habits much like those of the Perdiz and is 

 often caught for food by the same means. Its flesh is excellent, although 

 less esteemed than the Perdiz. It is known as 'Torito,' the Little Bull, from 

 its habit of bobbing, or 'Barbequejo,' from the moustache-like markings. 

 This, like the following species, is also called 'Boyero,' or Ox Driver, for its 

 note, an oft repeated and prolonged monosyllabic coo, somewhat resembles 

 the noise constantly made by men urging their oxen to strain to a heavy load. 

 The Torito is found in dry upland woods as well as in the low country, and 

 I have flushed a good many in the low but thick forest of the limestone 

 hills, or sierras, of Pinar del Rio. I also shot one once on the Sierra de 

 Casas of the Isle of Pines, in low, scrubby second-growth (manigua), hardly 

 to be called a forest. In the cayos within the Zapata Swamp it was far less 

 common than the Ruddy Quail Dove; nevertheless we often shot a few 

 for food as well as to skin. 



The Geotrygons, as I still like to call them, walk slowly about on 

 the ground with the head usually pulled in and not extended, and not 

 bobbing except when disturbed or frightened. Then they bob vigorously, 

 as does the Perdiz all the time, and this species is, I think, the shyest and 

 most prone to take flight of any of the group. 



