FAMILY COLUMBIDAE 35 



Males in display spread and elevate the tail, droop the wings, and 

 bow, as they move along a horizontal branch, or on the ground. 

 Alexander Skutch (Condor, 1959, pp. 65-74), in an excellent account 

 of the life history of this bird, based mainly on observations in Costa 

 Rica, describes ceremonial feeding of the female by the male. Nests, 

 the loosely made, shallow structures of twigs and dried tendrils usual 

 in doves, are placed in dense cover in thickets or low trees a few 

 meters above the ground. The eggs are white, with 2 as the normal 

 set, though occasional nests contain only 1. Skutch records measure- 

 ments of 6 eggs as ranging from 25.0-26.2 X 17.5-19.4 mm. In Panama 

 the main nesting period appears to come between March and August. 



The skin in this species is more delicate and the attachment of 

 feathers even looser than usual in doves, a family in which these traits 

 normally are found, so that the preparation of museum specimens re- 

 quires much care. 



The blue ground-dove has an extensive range from southeastern 

 Mexico through Central America and most of tropical South America 

 to northern Argentina and southern Brazil, including the island of 

 Trinidad. There is some variation in depth of color, particularly in 

 males, but this appears to be individual so that no subspecies are 

 recognized. 



In Panama, as noted in the range above, these birds are common 

 on the islands of Coiba and Cebaco, and also occur on the large islands 

 in the Laguna de Chiriqui, but they have not been found to date in 

 the Pearl Islands. It appears that this species may be less prone to 

 cross wide stretches of open water than is the case with the ruddy 

 ground-dove. 



CLARAVIS MONDETOURA MONDETOURA (Bonaparte): 

 Maroon-chested Ground-Dove; Tortolita Serrana 



Peristera mondetoura Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, vol. 42, May 



1856, p. 765. (Caracas, Venezuela.) 

 Claravis mondetoura pulchra Griscom, Occ. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, 



June 14, 1930, p. 288. (Boquete, Chiriqui.) 



A ground-dove of medium size; male gray, with reddish brown 

 breast; female olive-brown with two or three dark purple spots on 

 the wing coverts. 



Description. — Length 210-230 mm. Male, forehead and throat 

 grayish white ; rest of dorsal surface, including central tail feathers, 

 slate-gray, darker on the rump ; wing coverts somewhat paler ; a broad 

 band of violaceous black on the inner secondaries and the inner greater 



