FAMILY COLUMBIDAE 59 



wing 134.2-141.1 (137.2), tail 67.4-74.7 (70.5), culmen 11.1-13.0 

 (12.0), tarsus 28.2-31.8 (29.8) mm. 



Females (8 from Panama and northern Colombia), wing 132.2- 

 138.8 (133.7), tail 68.0-73.6 (69.9), culmen 10.2-12.4 (11.3), tarsus 

 27.2-29.7 (28.8) mm. 



Resident. Fairly common, but local throughout the Tropical Zone 

 on both Pacific and Atlantic slopes, rarely in the lower Subtropical 

 Zone; in the mountains ranging to 1,000 meters in Chiriqui, 900 

 meters in the Azuero Peninsula (Cerro Viejo), and in Darien to 900 

 meters on Cerro Pirre, and 1,400 meters on Cerro Mali ; Isla Coiba ; 

 Isla Rancheria ; Isla Cebaco. 



This is the most common and widely distributed of the quail-doves 

 of Panama, more adaptable than others of its group, as it is found in 

 second-growth forest, sometimes in tracts of small size, as well as in 

 gallery forest, and in the denser stands in areas of heavy rainfall. It 

 lives on the ground under the shadows of the undergrowth, and com- 

 monly is found in pairs, except when accompanied by its young. In 

 passing through its haunts the birds walk aside with nodding heads, 

 and stand quietly concealed in the shadows, or fly quickly with a flutter 

 of wings for a few meters before they drop again to the ground. While 

 they may inhabit level areas, it is more common to find them where the 

 forest floor is broken by sloping hills, or is cut by quebradas. 



Their call is a soft coo, low in tone, with a resonance that makes the 

 sound seem to come from a distance though the bird may be near at 

 hand. It differs in softer tone from the call of the male Cassin's dove 

 that may be found near, or of the rabiblancas at the forest edge. 

 Their food is mainly seeds and drupes that have fallen to the ground. 

 One taken at Cana by E. A. Goldman had eaten many seeds of 

 Borreria, with 1 of Styrax, and 4 of larger size. 



The nests from which I have data have been placed a meter or two 

 from the ground in vines or in the concealment of small branches. 

 One found by Major General G. Ralph Meyer near the Madden Road 

 in the Canal Zone was at the edge of woods near a trail. The nest 

 was a shallow depression in a platform of dead leaves supported by 

 a few reedlike plant stems. The 2 eggs are cream-buff, with 1 faintly 

 paler than the other. They are short, subelliptical in form, and 

 measure 24.8x20.2 and 25.1x20.2 mm. Field notes of M. A. Car- 

 riker, Jr., with another set of 2 eggs taken at the Hacienda Belen, 

 Antioquia, Colombia, state that the male was incubating. In the 

 British Museum (Natural History) eggs in a set of 2 from Morne 

 Bleu, Trinidad, collected May 5, 1935, are pale buff, with the surface 



