490 Col. H. W. Feildeu on 



-A 29. CHAMiEPELi \. PAssERiNA (Linn.) . Ground Dove. 



Resident and very numerous, especially on the sand-dunes 

 "vvliicli border some part of the coast. I have heard of as 

 many as fifty couples having been shot in a day by two guns. 

 Manchineel bushes are very often selected as nesting-sites ; 

 the nest itself, composed of a few grass-stems and roots, is so 

 frail that the two white eggs may often be seen through the 

 structure. This bird frequently drops her eggs on the 

 ground. 



Obs. Numida melagris, Linn. Guinea-fowl. Common in 

 a domesticated state, but does not run wild as in the island 

 of Barbuda. 



-f30. Ortyx virginianus (Linn.). Quail. 



Is a very rare visitor to Barbados. Dr. Manning has a 

 specimen shot at Bankhall, in St. Michael's parish, during 

 September 1886 ; the same gentleman saw another in 

 St. James's parish during September 1887, but did not suc- 

 ceed in shooting it. This species is included by Schom- 

 burgk in his list. 



'31. Squatarola HELVETICA (Linn.). White-tailed Plover ; 

 Loggerhead ; Rock Plover. 



This is ratlier a rare autumnal visitant, in some years none 

 alighting; it generally arrives after the Golden Plover, to- 

 wards the close of the shooting-season ; it hardly ever settles 

 on the pastures or by the decoy-ponds, but on the rocky 

 shore, where it consorts with Ringed Plovers, Turnstones, 

 and Sanderlings. I procured a specimen on the 22nd of 

 September, 1888. 



■f-32. Charadrius dominicus, Miill. Golden Plover. 



Stragglers arrive as early as July and the beginning of 

 August, but the main flights come with the first heavy weather 

 after the 27th of August, and long experience and observation 

 proves that this date is kept year after year with wonderful 

 accuracy. The course of all the migratory Charadriidae across 

 Barbados in the autumn is from the north-west to south-east, 

 and if the wind blows from south-east the birds are brought down 

 to the island, for it appears to be a tolerably well established 



