THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 187 



he recorded them as common and prepared twelve skins from March 

 3 to 9, 1917. A female shot March 9 contained mature eggs. 



Wetmore in 1927 reported one from Sources Puantes March 30, 

 and others at Fonds-des-Negres April 2 and 5. On the Massif de la 

 Selle they were seen regularly from April 12 to 15. Here the ramier 

 was especially common among the scattered fields of the Jardins 

 Bois Pin where they perched in the tops of dead trees, often in little 

 companies. At one time nine were observed resting in the early 

 morning sun in two adjacent trees. The swift, direct flight always 

 caught the eye as they crossed the sky. At rest they sat erect with 

 tail straight down and head well up so that the neck appeared long. 

 When approached in the open they usually took flight out of gun 

 range but there was little difficulty in stalking them behind light 

 cover for they were not too wary due to present prohibition against 

 the general possession of firearms in Haiti. They were observed at 

 Chapelle Faure on April 17. The skulls of several taken on this 

 mountain range were preserved as specimens while the bodies made 

 an excellent addition to a somewhat restricted camp menu. A male 

 shot April 15 was approaching the breeding season. At Hinche 

 Wetmore took one April 22 and on April 24 observed several near 

 the Bassin Zime. The adult male taken April 22 showed the fol- 

 lowing colors of the soft parts: iris orange red; margins of eyelids 

 bright red ; bare skin about eye pale purplish red above and in front 

 of eye, with scattered papillae colored honey yellow; distal half of 

 bill dull grayish yellow; basal portion, including cere, deep red, 

 tarsus and toes deep, dull red; claws dull grayish yellow. Abbott 

 has recorded the eyes in specimens taken at Laguna in August as 

 red in the male and orange red in the female, while in a female from 

 Moustique taken in March he reports the iris as orange, eyelids red, 

 and the orbital skin yellow. Danforth found squamated pigeons at 

 the Citadelle de Christophe above Milot, at Fonds-des-Negres, and 

 on Gonave Island in 1927. Bond found this pigeon widely distrib- 

 uted through the mountainous regions recording it in Morne La 

 Hotte, Massif de la Selle, Chaine des Mateux, Massif du Nord, and 

 the Montaignes Noires. He found it rare on Gonave Island. A nest 

 found on Morne Salnave back of Acul Samedi was placed about 

 five metres above the ground. Poole and Perrygo collected one at 

 L'Atalaye December 31, 1928, and one at St. Michel January 6, 1929. 

 E. L. Ekman has reported this species from Navassa Island in 

 October, 1928. 



Schlegel 65 says that the type of Goluniba portoricensis, a synonym 

 of the present species, came from Haiti. 



65 Mus. Pays-Bas, vol. 4, 1873, Columbae, p. 68, 



