74 MEMOIRS OF THE XUTTALL ORXITIIOLOGICAL CLUB 



Gundlach found nests from Februan^ to June, little flat platforms of 

 sticks set on some low bunch of epiphytes. 



Nowhere abundant, indeed a rather rare bird throughout its consider- 

 able range, the Key West Quail Dove is one of the species which sooner 

 or later will completely disappear. 



130. Oreopeleia montana (Linne). 

 Ruddy Quail Dove; Boyero. 



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. Here a pig 

 ranch, kept by a hospitable Senor Perez and called Hato Jicarito, stretched 

 its limits to the Rio Hatiguanico. The pigs ran wild, and little of the 

 land was cleared. There was some second-growth, but much was virgin 

 forest, too inaccessible to make the timber worth while, and in 191 3 the 

 nearest sugar mill, Armonia, was too far off to grind cane should Perez 

 plant it. I often wonder whether or no this happy state of affairs still 

 continues. It is almost certain that some one of the host of new mills has 

 run in a railway to haul out the splendid hardwood for ties and to encourage 

 small planters (colonos) to cut the woods {monte) and plant cane in the 

 slash (tumba). 



131. Oreopeleia caniceps (Gundlach). 

 Camao. 



This splendid bird is one of the ornithological treasures of Cuba. 

 Its rich metallic blue mantle and delicate gull-gray crown mark it 

 conspicuously. Once, more widespread, it is now rare and restricted in 



