BIRDS OF CUBA 75 



range. Formerly it occasionally was caught by the dove trappers and 

 still once in a great while it is brought to Guantanamo In this way Charles 

 T. Ramsden has got the bird alive and has obtained a ^ew skins for his 

 cabinet. Dr. Henry Bryant had a skin in his collection, labelled Remed.os 

 i6 Mar 1864," but in all northern Santa Clara there is now no wood 

 where it might persist. Gundlach knew of it from Yateras, whence the 

 Guantanamo specimens still are obtained; from near Bayanio where I 

 could get no news of it whatever; from near the old plantation La Fermina 

 near Bemba, now Jovellanos, a region now wholly given up to cane and 

 pasture; and from La Maya at the entrance to Matanzas Bay. Here there 

 is still some uncleared land with dense mamgua, but hardly offering, at 

 first sight, a refuge for a bird of the heaviest wet forest. It is to two large 

 wooded cayos, by no means easy of access, called La Isla and Cayo Yagua- 

 justa, at the edge of the Cienaga, some miles southwest of Aguada de 

 Pasajeros, that the hunter who would test his patience and good luck 



must go to get this bird. , r . 



I have tried for it many times, and have spent day after day creeping 

 about the forest floor, watching and waiting, working slowly toward the 

 spot where oft repeated hUp-fiT^p-hup, peculiarly resonant and far-reaching 

 led me to hope for a shot. The bird is very shy, so retiring m fact that few 

 of the professional hunters even know of its existence. Francisco Llorente 

 gave me my first clue to the Camao, and it was with him that I shot the 

 first one, just at evening. It came strutting out into the waning light to 

 cross a muddy stream on a greasy, slimy log. It fell into the water, a 

 gorgeous gem in as plain a setting as one could well imagine. Then, huntmg 

 alone, I soon found that my patience and somewhat less hasty shooting 

 gave me distinct advantages, until at last a beautiful series, safely dried, 

 allowed me to close with great satisfaction one of the most unexpectedly 

 successful chapters of my Cuban excursions. _ 



The nest of caniceps has been found but once. This was in August. 

 Gundlach unfortunately broke the eggs. No mention is made of their 

 number, but he noted that they were similar in appearance to those of the 

 other Quail Doves. These are usually three in number and ochraceous 



white. 



132. Chaemepelia passerina insularis (Ridgway). 

 Cuban Ground Dove; Tojosa. 



The little Tojosa soon becomes a familiar friend. It picks its way 

 daintily about the dooryards and abounds everywhere in cleared fields and 



