25S 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



guttural ju'i, i'lij, and by the loud rushing of their 

 powerful wings. Frequently one would chase another 

 round the trees, playfully, "which I conjectured to be 

 a symptom of pairing. 



•" The common note of the Blue Pigeon resembles 

 somewhat the barking of a cur ; bow-buic-tOiv the last 

 syllable protracted, and falling." 



"About the end of April I was informed of a Blue 

 Pigeon's nest on a lofty limb of an inaccessible cotton 

 tree. It was a more substantial structure than those 

 of its congeners, being made of dried grass, or similar 

 material, as well as twigs. A Baldpate had a nest on a 

 contiguous tree, and the neighbouring birds were con- 

 tinually squabbHng. I have never seen the eggs." 



RuFons Pigeon [C'olumlia rufiria). 



Back, scapulars, lesser and median wing-coverts, 

 chestnut purple with a tinge of lilacine ; lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts leaden-gi-ey ; greater wing- 

 coverts brownish-grey ; flights brown with narrow paler 

 edges : tail brownish-grey, with terminal sordid grey 

 band ; forehead, crown, front of neck, and breast 

 purplish vinous, tinged with lilacine ; back of head and 

 ujiper nape metallic bronze-green, shot with gold and 

 purple ; cheeks grey ; chin and throat whitish-grey ; the 

 vinaceous purple of the breast shading into grey on the 

 sides, abdomen, and under tail-coverts ; under wins;- 

 coverts also grey ; tail below paler than above ; bill 

 blackish ; feet dark red ; irides red. Female rather 

 duller : the chestnut of tlie upper surface more restricted 

 on back and upper wing-coverts. Hab., Guatemala to 

 Colombia, Guiana, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. 



Jlr. W. A. Forbes, speaking of this species in North- 

 eastern Brazil (The Ibif, 1881, p. 386), says : " I ob- 

 tained a single living specimen of this pigeon at Para- 

 hyba, where I was told that at some seasons of the year, 

 when certain fruits were ripe, it was common in the 

 forests around. The Brazilians know it as the 

 ' Gallega.' " 



Mr. W. L. S. Loat, speaking of it as observed in 

 British Guiana, says {Tlie Ibis, 1898, p. 566) : " The 

 wild fruits attract the Common Pigeon (Columbii rufiiw) 

 sometimes in great numbers ; they are generally fat, and 

 make very good eating." 



Two specimens of this species were purchased by the 

 London Zoological Society in 1867, and in 1880 it was 

 again received : the German chemist, Landauer, pos- 

 sessed it in 1882. 



Ring-tailed Pigeon (Columba ranbira). 



Upper surface grey, slightly tinged with olivaceous ; 

 primary-coverts black, partly edged with whitish : 

 primaries black ; tail dull grey, banded towards the 

 middle with black ; back of neck metallic green, shot 

 with purple ; head, sides of neck and under surface 

 vinous: under tail-coverts sordid whitish-grey; wing 

 below grey, darker on the flights ; tail below dusky 

 grey, with a broad, paler, terminal belt ; bill black ; 

 feet probably red ; irides varying from reddish orange 

 to deep vermilion. Female rather smaller, and more 

 smoky in all its tints than the male ; sometimes, if not 

 always, more gravel-reddish on under surface. Hab , 

 Jamaica and Porto Rico. 



Gosse says (" Birds of Jamaica," pp. 291-295) : " Of 

 all our Doves, none is so exclusively arboreal as this ; 

 he is never seen to put his feet upon the earth. Though 

 it is probable that he must occasionally procure gravel 

 to aid in the comminution of his hard food, and that 

 when the resources of the wild pines are exhausted in 



the long droughts, he must descend to drink at the 

 mountain ponds, or gully springs, it s^ems that he 

 cautiously selects his occasion, when unwitnessed by 

 human eyes. And yet it is said not to be a shy bird, 

 nor, at certain times, difficult to obtain by those who 

 have made themselves acquainted w^ith its habits. It 

 inhabits the most recluse and dense mountain forests, 

 where few are able to follow it but the negro fowlers. 

 The penetration of steep mountain woods, aiaoiuiding in 

 prickly bushes, and tangled beyond all description by 

 twining and pendent lianes, many cf which are formid- 

 ably spinous, where there is nothing like a pathway, and 

 the" ground is strewn with enormous masses of honey- 

 combed limestone, over whose sharp points the hunter 

 must often climb at the risk of his neck, or with a loose 

 rubble that slips from beneath the feet and causes 

 continual falls, is an enterprise that demands no small 

 degree of courage, temper, and perseverance. The 

 naked feet of the negroes catch hold of the rocky pro- 

 jeotions, almost like the hind hands of the monkey, 

 and they can proceed with rapid and noiseless step ; 

 while the shoes of the white man, in his slow and 

 painful progress, betray by the displacing of stones-and 

 the crackling of twigs his approach to the wary bird 

 while yet far away. The mosquitoes also that, thirsting 

 for blood and swa'rming in such situations, dance around 

 his face with their maddening hum, and soon inflame 

 head, hand, and foot with their pungent stings, make 

 a tyro long to be out again almost before he has lost 

 sight of the open sky of the clearing. But it is the 

 presence of these most annoying insects which affords 

 an opiwrtunity of obtaining the highly-prized Ring-tail. 

 This bird appears to suffer more from their stings than 

 others, or el^e its superior sagacity has taught it a 

 resource of which others are ignorant or unwilling to 

 avail themselves. It is aware that these little insect 

 pests cannot abide smoke, and wherever the blue clouds 

 curl gracefully through the tall trees from the -wood- 

 man's fire the Ring-tail is said to resort thither, if 

 within the neighbourhood, and solace itself with a 

 temporary suspension of insect assaults. But, alas! it 

 is only to expose itself to a more fatal peril, for the 

 negro sportsmen have marked the habit and fail not 

 to take advantage of it. Whenever they have noticed 

 the birds feeding on the berries of anv particular tree, 

 they take an early opiiortunity of kindling a fire beneath 

 it, near which they conceal themselves, so as to w-atch 

 the tree. The birds begin to arrive and are shot down 

 by the fowler one after another, the repeated flashes 

 arid reports and the falls of their companions driving 

 the survivors away for a few moments only from the 

 attractive spot, to which they again and again return 

 till the gunner's ambition is satisfied." 



"The Ring-tail is stated invariably to perch near the 

 middle of a tree, usually in the fork of the principal 

 limbs ; where Avhen seated, it will remain quietly look- 

 ing down at the fowler, perhaps within a tew yards 

 of his head. The centre of those trees which are clothed 

 with a dense, tangled ma.=s of withes or creepers, is 

 preferred ; and it is asserted that on no occasion is 

 this bird to be seen perched on an exterior twig or 

 branch." 



" The Ring-tail will sometimes leave his solitudes and 

 come down to eat the berries of mistleto« growing on 

 sour-sop and other trees. A friend has seen four thus 

 engaged on a tree in the house-yard. It eats the seed 

 of the .yam, also in the provision ground." 



"Robinson found in one the hard, perforated seeds 

 of the small palmetto-thatch. He mention^: aleo that 

 in the autumn they owe their fatness to feeding on the 

 fruit of the trumpet-tree, wild raspberries, and wild 

 star-apples." 



