GROUND-DOVES. 



295 



tree with this and the Whitewing. If in the large 

 woods, one of moderate height is chosen. The nest con- 

 sists of a few loose sticks, with some leaves in the 

 centre; the eggs are white." 



Of late years, a fair number of examples of this Dove 

 has been imported. In 1902, Mr. W. E. Parker recorded 

 the loss of one in his possession, and the following year 

 Miss Rosie Alderson bred the species and published an 

 account of her experience in The Avicultural Magazine, 

 Second Series, Vol. II., pp. 28-30; Mr. Castle-Sloane 

 also bred it, and he says that incubation lasts fifteen 

 days ; others have been successful since then. An illus- 

 trated account by Mr. Seth-Smith was published in 

 Vol. III. of the same magazine (pp. 87-89). 



A pair of this Dove reached the Gardens in Regent's 

 Park as long ago as 1867, and others have been added 

 to the collection there in subsequent years. 



WELLS' DOVE (Leptoptila, wellsi). 



The adult bird has the upper surface of a brownish- 

 olive tint ; the forehead pinky-white, shading into -grey 

 on the crown ; back of head and nape dark olivaceous- 

 brown, washed with purple ; flights brown, the inner 

 webs cinnamon ; tail olive-brown, the shafts of the 

 feathers blackish, the outer feathers darker and tipped 

 with white ; chin and upper throat white ; cheeks, lower 

 throat, and breast, dull vinous ; chest, abdomen, and 

 under tail-coverts white, the last slightlv tinged on the 

 outer webs with brown ; sides, brown ; axiflaries and 

 under wing-coverts, cinnamon ; feet, crimson ; bill, 

 black; naked skin round eye, blue; iris, brown (?)*. 

 Tihe female is very similar, the forehead less white, 

 and the colouring generally, perhaps, a trifle duller. 

 Hah., Island of Tobago, W. Indies. I have found no 

 field notes relating to thi& species. It is supposed to 

 inhabit also the Island of Grenada, but this may be an 

 error. The latter locality for the species was Driven to 

 the Zoological Society by Mr. S. Wells, who, in August, 

 1886, presented a pair to the Gardens ; in any case the 

 species appears to be not uncommon in Tobago. 



Tihis Dove, which has very much the character and 

 habits of Zenaida, probably spends much of its time on 

 the earth in search of fallen seeds and berries, like the 

 other species of the genus, but in captivity the term 

 Ground-dove is not descriptive of them, since they often 

 spend nearly the whole day upon a .branch, only visiting 

 the ground to feed. 



In May, 1898, I obtained what I then supposed to be 

 a pair of this species from Mr. J. C. Pool, of Birming- 

 ham, in exchange for other birds. One of these, a hen, 

 had been pinioned, and was killed two years later by 

 my Crested Pigeons ; the other, which I regarded as 

 a male, but which eventually proved to be a female, was 

 for some years associated with two species of Zenaida 

 in my bird-room, and agreed fairly well with them, 

 probably because it did not happen to ;be a male. For 

 this reason also it never uttered a note, and I came to 

 the Conclusion (see "Foreign Bird-keeping," Vol. II., 

 p. 98) that it was rather a stupid bird. Later I trans- 

 ferred it to one of my indoor covered aviaries, where it 

 had a pair of Bronze-wing Pigeons and a pair o<f Aus- 

 tralian Green-winged Doves for companions. It used to 

 take a great deal of notice of some Turtle-doves in the 

 next aviary until I eventually turned in a male of one 

 of them with it, when it entirely ignored its presence. 

 In 1905 this bird began to lay and sit without inter- 

 mission throughout the entire' year. The eggs being 1 

 unfertile, I was able to secure a good many, and thus 

 supplied a desideratum to the National and other collec- 

 tions, but the bird wore herself out with her self- 



imposed labours, and died early in 1906. Unhappily, 

 the skin was not worth preserving. 



RED GROUND DOVE (Geotrygon montana). 



Above bright rufous, with a purple tinge, which is 

 more denned on the back of head, nape, sides of neck, 

 and mantle ; flights rufous-brown, more rufous on outer 

 web and towards base of inner we-b ; tail purplish rufous, 

 with paler tips to the lateral feathers ; a pale reddish 

 stripe, from the base of the lower mandible to the ear- 

 coverts, below the eye and underneath this a second 

 reddish-purple band passing to back of head ; throat 

 and a band on sides of ibreast whitish-fawn colour ; 

 breast reddish-purple ; abdomen, vent, and under tail- 

 coverts fawn colour ; under wing-coverts rufous ; bill 

 horn, colour, above carmine-red at base ; feet reddish- 

 white, with dark carmine scales, barely red on the 

 toes ; orbital skin dull carmine ; eyelids bright car- 

 mine ; irides brownish orange-yellow. Female above 

 dark olive, with a golden gloss ; flights brown, with 

 cinnamon base to inner web ; tail olive-brown, with 

 the base refescent, especially on under surface ; fore- 

 head and cheeks rufous, the latter bounded by an olive 

 band ; throat whitish-rufous ; lower throat and breast 

 olive-brown ; lower breast and abdomen buffish, more or 

 less tinged with brown. Hab., " Tropical America in 

 general (including West Indies), north to Cuba (acci- 

 dentally at Key West), and Eastern Mexico (Mirador), 

 and south to Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru." (Salva- 

 dor!. ) 



Gosse remarks (" Birdsi of Jamaica," pp. 321-324): 

 " This bird, the female of which is the least beautiful 

 of all our Doves, is generally scattered. It affects a 

 well-wooded country, and is found in such woods as are 

 more choked with bushes than such as the Whitebelly 

 prefers, though they often dwell together. It is essen- 

 tially a ground Pigeon, walking in couples or singly, 

 seeking for seeds or gravel on the earth. It is often 

 seen beneath a .pimento picking up the fallen berries ; 

 the physic nut also and other oily seeds afford it sus- 

 tenance. Sam once observed a pair of these Doves 

 eating the large seed of a manao that had been crushed. 

 With seeds I have occasionally found small slugs, a 

 species of Vagimdus, common in damp places, in its 

 gizzard. Often when riding through the Ootta-wood, a 

 dense and tangled coppice near Content. I have been 

 startled by the loud whirring of one of these birds, 

 and at the same instant its short, thick-set form has 

 shot across on rapid wing, conspicuous for a moment 

 from its bright rufous plumage, but instantly lost in the 

 surrounding bushes. When on the ground it is wary 

 and difficult of approach, but if it takes to a tree it 

 seems less fearful, and will allow the aim of the sports- 

 man. It is in the dry season, and particularly during 

 the parching months "that prevail at intervals froii 

 November to 'March, that the Partridge, as well as one 

 or two other species of Dove is numerous in the low- 

 land woods. In the summer it is much less frequently 

 seen, and then only in the deep woods." 



" In the Short Cut of Paradise, where the sweetwood 

 abounds, the Partridge is also numerous ; in March and 

 April when these berriesi are ripe their stomachs are 

 filled with them. Here si the same season their cooing 

 resounds, which is simply a very sad moan, usually 

 uttered on the ground ; but on one occasion we heard 

 it from the limb of a cotton tree, at Cave, on which 

 the bird, sitting with its head drawn in, was shot in the 

 very act. But at a little distance the voice is not dis- 

 tinguishable from the moan of the Mountain Witch. 



" One day in June I went down with a young friend 



