Open Nests in Woods, Thickets, Swampy Thickets 
being much the smallest of our native doves. As its name im- 
plies, it spends the greater part of its time on the ground, where 
it may be seen moving its head, while walking or running, after 
the habit of the domestic pigeon. 
The nests are usually near cultivated land, frequently in 
abandoned gardens or yards, and though the ground is perhaps 
the favourite place for building, yet bushes, trees, or even tree 
stumps are sometimes chosen. The breeding season lasts from 
April to July ; eggs have been taken as late as October, but this 
is probably quite exceptional. 
822. Quail Dove: Geotrygon martinica (Linn), 
Eggs white or buffy white. 
See Page 133, Chapter VIII. 
325. Turkey Vulture; Turkey Buzzard: Cathartes aura 
(Linn.) 
Adult—Black tinged with brown ; head and neck red, bare of 
feathers. Length—About 30.00. 
Breeding Range—From New Jersey southward; accidental in New 
England. 
The eggs are laid inside a hollow log or stump, or on the 
ground, often beneath palmetto or small bushes in fairly open 
places, or among rocks; the eggs are yellowish or grayish white, 
splashed with chocolate and black, chiefly at the larger end ; the 
number varies from 1 to 4. Size—2.75 x 1.90. See Fig. 1, Plate A. 
These birds, so graceful in flight yet so awkward when on 
the ground, are perhaps the most useful of the southern birds ; 
as they, with their near relatives, the black vultures, are the scay- 
engers that leave no track or trace of anything that might pollute 
the air. The question, on which so much has been written and 
which has, I believe, never been satisfactorily decided, is whether 
it is by the sense of smell or sight that these birds discover the 
whereabouts of food; that their sight is wonderful must be ad- 
mitted, while their power of smelling does not appear to be at all 
remarkable. It is scarcely possible that a bird flying at a height 
that renders him scarcely visible to the naked eye, and which 
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