GROUND-DOVES. 



tree with this and the Whitewing. If in the large 

 woods, one of moderate height is chosen. The nest con- 

 sists of a few loose sticks, with some leaves in the 

 centre; the eggs are white." 



Of late years, a fair number of examples of this Dove 

 ha.s been imported. In 1902, Mr. W. E. Parker recorded 

 the loss of one in his possession, and the following year 

 Miss Kosie Alderton bred the species and published an 

 account of her experience in The Avicultuial MmjazUtf, 

 Second .Series, Vol. II., pp. 28-50; Mr. C'astle-Sloane 

 also bred it, and he says that incubation lasts fifteen 

 days: others have been successful since then. An illus- 

 trated account by Mr. Seth-Smith was published in 

 Vol. III. of the same magazine (pp. 87-89). 



A pair of this Dove reached the Gardens in Regent's 

 Park as long ago as 1867, and others have been added 

 to the collection there in subsequent years. 



Wells' Dove {Leplo/ilila welhi). 



The adult bird has the upper surface of a brownish- 

 olive tint; the forehead pinky- white, shading into.gi-cy 

 on the crown ; back of head and nape dark olivaceous- 

 brown, washed with piurple ; flights brown, the inner 

 webs cinnamon ; tail olive-brown, the shafts of the 

 feathers blackish, the outer feathers darker and tipped 

 with white ; chin and upper throat white ; cheeks, lower 

 throat, and breast, dull vinous; che.st, abdomen, and 

 under tail-coverts white, the last slightlv tinged on the 

 outer webs with brown ; sides, brown ; axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts, cinnamon; feet, crimson; bill, 

 black; naked skin round eye, blue; iris, brown {''■)*. 

 1'he female is very similar, the forehead less white, 

 and the colouring generally, perhaps, a trifle duller, 

 llab.. Island of Tobago, W. Indies. I have found no 

 field notes relating to this species. It is supposed to 

 inhabit also the Island of Grenada, but this may be an 

 error. The latter locality for the species was given to 

 the Zoological Society by'Mr. S. Wells, who, in August, 

 1886, presented a pair to the Gardens; in any case the 

 species appears to be nut uncommon in Tobago. 



This Dove, which has very much the character and 

 habits of Zenaida, probably spends much of its time on 

 the earth in .search of fallen seeds and berries, like the 

 other species of the genus, but in captivity the term 

 Ground-dove is not descriptive of them, since they often 

 epend nearly the whole day upon a branch, only visiting 

 the ground to feed. 



In May. 1898, I obtained what I then supposed to be 

 a pair of" this species from Mr. J. C. Pool, of Birming- 

 ham, in e.vchange for other birds. One of these, a hen, 

 bad been pinioned, and was killed two years later by 

 my Crested Pigeons ; the other, which I regarded as 

 a, male, but which eventually proved to be a female, was 

 for some vears associated with two species of Zenaidn 

 in my bird-room, and agreed fairly well with them, 

 pnjbably because it did not happen to be a male. For 

 thi.s reason also it never uttered a note, and I oame to 

 the lonrhision (see "Foreign Bird-keeping," Vol. II., 

 p. 98) that it was rather a stupid bird. Later I trans- 

 ferred it to one of my indoor covered aviaries, where it 

 bad A pair of Bronze-wing Pigeons and a pair o'f Aus- 

 tralian Green-winged Doves for com.pinions. It used to 

 take ,1. great deal of notice of some Turtle-doves in the 

 next aviarv until I eventuallv turned in a male of one 

 of them with it, when it entirely ignored its presence. 

 In 1905 this bird began to lay and sit without inter- 

 mission throughout the entire year. The eggs bein_^ 

 unfertile. I was able to secure a good many, and thus 

 ."supplied a desideratum to the X.itional and other collec- 

 tions, but the bird wore herself out with her self- 



imposed labours, and died early in 1906. Unhappily, 

 the skin was not worth preserving. 



Red Grovnd Dove (Gtotrygun montana). 

 Above bright rufous, with a purple tinge, which is 

 more defined on the back of head, nape, sides of neck, 

 and mantle ; flights rufoUB-brown, more rufous on outer 

 ' web and towards base of inner web ; tail purplish rufous 

 with paler tips to the lateral feathers ; a i)ale reddish 

 stripe from the base of the lower mandiUe to the ear- 

 coverts, below the eye and underneath this a second 

 reddish-purple band passing to back of head ; throat 

 and a band on sides of breast whitish-fawn colour; 

 breast reddish-pui-ple ; abdomen, vent, and under tail- 

 coverts fawn colour ; under wing-coverts rufous ; bill 

 horn colour, above carmine-red at base ; feet reddish- 

 white, with dark carmine scales, barely red on the 

 toes ; orbital skin dull carmine ; eyelids bright car- 

 mine ; irides brownish orange-yellow. Female above 

 dark olive, with a golden gloss; flights brown, with 

 cinnamon base to imier web ; tail olive-brown, with 

 the base refescent, especially on under surface; fore- 

 head and cheeks rufous, the "latter bounded by an olive 

 band: throat whitish-rufous; lower throat and breast 

 olive-brown; lower breast and abdomen huffish, more or 

 less tinged with brown. Hab., " Tropical America in 

 c»eneral (including West Indies), north lo Cuba (acci- 

 dentally at Key West), and Eastern Mexico (Mirador), 

 and so"uth to Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru." (Salva- 



(iosse remarks ("Birds of Jamaica." pp. 321-324):^ 

 " This bird, the female of which is the least beautiful 

 of all our Doves, is generally scattered. It affects a 

 well- wooded countn'. and is found in such woods as are 

 more choked with Ijushes than such as the Whitebelly 

 prefers, though they often dwell together. It is essen- 

 tially a around Pigeon, walking in couples or smgly, 

 seeking for seeds or gravel on the earth. It is often 

 seen beneath a pimento picking up the fallen berries ; 

 the physic nut also and other oily seeds afford it sus- 

 tenance. Sam once observed a "pair of these Doves 

 eating the large seed of amanpo that had been crushed. 

 With" seeds I have occasionally found small slugs, a 

 species of Vaginulus, common in damp places, in its 

 gizzard. Often when riding thron-'h the CotU-wood, a 

 dense and tangled coppice near Content. I have been 

 startled by the loud whirring of one of these birds, 

 and at the same instant its short, thick-set form has 

 shot across on rapid wing, conspicuous for a moment 

 from its bright rufous plumage, liut instantlv lost m the 

 suiTounding bushes, ^^^len on the ground it is wary 

 and difficult of approach, but if it takes to a tree it 

 ..-■eems less fearful, and will allow the aim of the sports- 

 man. It is in the dry season, and particularly during 

 the parching montlis that prevail at intervals froni 

 Xovember to March, that the Partridge, as well as one 

 or two other species of Dove us numerous in the low- 

 land woods. In the summer it is much less frequently 

 seen, and then only in the deep wo.jds." 



•• In the Short Cut of Par.adise, where the sweetwood 

 abound.':, the Partridge is also numerous ; m March and 

 \pril when the.=e berries are ripe their stomachs are 

 filled with them. Here at the same season their cooing 

 resounds, which is simply a very sad moan, usually 

 uttered on the ground ; but on one occasion we heard 

 it from the limb of a cotton tree, at Cave, on which 

 the bird, .sitting with its head drawn in. was shot in the 

 very act. But at a little distance the voice i.s not dis- 

 tinguishable from the moan of the Mountain Witch. _ 



"One day in June I went down with a young fncnd 



