BLUE-HEADED GROUND PIGEON. 217 



wings, which are short, concave, and rounded, indi- 

 cate but a weak and inferior power of flight. This 

 bird is a native of the southern islands of America, 

 and is plentiful in Cuba and Jamaica, in which lat- 

 ter island it has obtained from its gallinaceous habits 

 the name of partridge. It lives entirely upon the 

 ground, where it runs with great rapidity, like the 

 above-named bird, the neck being drawn in, and the 

 back forming a curve, by the pendant manner in 

 which it carries its tail. It nidificates upon the 

 ground, and lays several eggs, and the young when 

 hatched soon learn to follow the parent. It has a 

 deep murmuring note, which is not often heard, the 

 bird being of a retired and solitary disposition. 



In size it nearly equals our common partridge, be- 

 ing about eleven inches in length. The bill is red- 

 dish at the base, the tip grey. The tarsi and feet 

 are red, the former, as we have previously observed, 

 are covered with hexagonal scales. The head and 

 chin are of a fine azure-grey blue. The throat, fore 

 neck, and upper breast are black ; the lower tier of 

 feathers upon the last named part are tipped with 

 white, and form a bar of that colour across the 

 breast. From each corner of the mouth a band of 

 pure white passes beneath the eyes and meets be- 

 hind the head below a black occipital bar of a 

 curved or horse-shoe form. The rest of the plu- 

 mage, both upper and under, is of a deep bistre 

 brown, tinged with vinaceous or purplish- red. 

 The next species that claims our attention is 



