On the Groinul-Dove of Porto Rico. 107 



measured respectively 5*8 and 6'25 inches in tlie flesh. Tlic 

 stomachs contained flies innumerable and small beetles. 



152. Pitta longipennis. Central-African Pitta. 



Pitta longipennis Keichen. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 390. 



Rh., P. I saw for a second on August 8th, in the dense 



bush of tljc Kurumadzi, a bird which I took to be a Pitta. 



It was running away from me and I had no time for a shot, 



but a local native wlio was with me informed me that he 



knew it mcU, that it was a bird " with a red breast and black 



head" and the owner of a note which I was constantly 



hearing, a ringing " plop-plop/' reminding me of what I had 



read of the note of the Pitta. I have also heard this call in 



Maruma, on Mt. Umtereni, in the Mt. Pene forest-patchy and 



elsewhere. 



[To be continued.] 



II. — On the Ground-Dove of Porto Rico, with Notes on the 

 other Species of Chamaepelia. By Percy R. Lowe, B.A., 

 M.B.O.U. 



The Ground-Doves of the genus Cliamcepelia are admitted 

 to be a difficult subject for study, and my only excuse for 

 offering a few remarks on them lies in the fact that I have 

 lately been able to make personal observations as to the colour 

 of the bill in the species inhabiting the different islands of 

 the Antillean Subregion. Although this is, in all probability, 

 the principal character for the separation of the various forms, 

 it is by no means the only one, as the variations in the 

 plumage should not be neglected. 



It will be seen by the nomenclature of the various species 

 that most of them have been considered to be forms of the 

 Columba passerina oi lAwudiu.^ \ but this being a composite 

 species the name passerina should, I think, be dropped 

 altogether. 



Linnseus apparently never saw an actual specimen of these 

 Ground-Doves, and, moreover, by adding, as synonyms of his 

 Columba passerina, the "Ground-Dove of the Carolinas^^ of 

 Catesby (Nat. Hist. Carol, i. p. 26, pi. 26) and the Ground- 

 Dove of Sloane (Nat. Hist, of Jamaica, ii. p. 305), united tiie 



