316 GYRANTES. — COLUMBAD^. 



The nest consists of a few loose sticks, with some 

 leaves in the centre ; the eggs are white. 



MOUNTAIN WITCH.* 

 Geotrygon sylvatica, mihi. 



No description can give an adequate notion of the 

 lustrous radiance of this most lovely bird ; though 

 it has not yet found a place in our Ornithologies. 

 I presume it to be the " Columha silvatica major 

 nigro-c(Brulescens,'' of Browne's Jamaica, p. 468, 

 but he has given no description ; his " Mountain 

 Witch, Mountain Partridge, or Mountain Dove," 

 is doubtless the bird described in the following 

 article. Mr. Selby, in his beautiful volume on the 

 Pigeons, in the Nat. Lib., named, without charac- 

 terising, the genus Geophilus, which, while he ap- 



* Geotrygon. Generic Character, — Beak robust, rather long; both 

 mandibles strongly arched at the tip ; nostrils opening far forward. 

 Wings short, and rounded : third quill longest ; second and following 

 quills strongly and abruptly sinuated on the outer edge ; first quill sickle- 

 shaped, not attenuated. Tail nearly even, short, (viz. less than thrice the 

 length of the tarsus). Tarsus longer than middle toe, unfeathered, 

 covered in front with transverse plates. Inner toe longer than outer ; 

 hallux shorter than outer toe. General form stout and plump. 



G. Sylvatica. Length 12 inches, expanse 19, flexure 6^, tail 4, rictus 

 1, tarsus 1^, middle toe 1^. Irides blood-red ; orbits grey, edge of eye'- 

 lids scarlet ; beak reddish-black ; feet pale flesh colour, front of tarsi and 

 of toes, pink, claws blackish, small and blunt. Head high and sub-coni- 

 cal ; feathers of occiput projecting and overhanging the neck, as if a notch 



