PIGEON. 



471 



the coppery appearance implied by the name. The 

 throat is reddish white, and so are the fore neck and 

 breast, but the latter is glossed with purple, and the 

 colour of the rest of the under partis pale and dull 

 brown, slightly washed with purple red. 



White-fronted Ground Dove. This is a much larger 

 species than any of the ground doves of the American 

 continent. It is a native of Africa, and though by no 

 means a rare bird it is difficult to be seen in conse- 

 quence of its habit of concealing itself among the 

 bushes. It is about eleven inches in length. The 

 forehead, the cheeks, and the throat are white or 

 whitish, from which it gets the trivial name. The 

 clothing plumage on the upper part is brown, but 

 glossed with green reflections, which come out in 

 certain lights. The under plumage is orange brown 

 washed with purple, but not showing reflections as 

 the upper part does. The top of the head and the 

 neck are of the same colour as the under parts, but 

 with green reflections, particularly strong on the sides 

 of the neck. On the lower part of the neck behind 

 there is a half collar of purple black, with golden 

 green margins to the feathers. The two middle fea- 

 thers of the tail are brown, and all the remaining ones 

 are black at the bases, and bluish grey at the tips. 

 The bill is bluish black, and the tarsi and toes brown 

 red. Though not a gaudy species this is an exceed- 

 ingly beautiful one, and it is one which is sought 

 after with some avidity, the more so that it cannot be 

 obtained without considerable difficulty. As is the case 

 with the whole section of the ground doves, it feeds 

 upon the ground, or upon the seeds of herbaceous 

 plants, and the berries of low bushes, but its resting 

 place is in the brush or close shrubbery which lies 

 between the dry karoos and the rich forests on the 

 Orange River. It is understood to be especially a 

 bird in the Nimagua country, at the mouth of the 

 Orange River, which is one of the best districts from 

 which to obtain all the choicer birds and mammalia 

 of Southern Africa. Its flight is low and fluttering, 

 somewhat resembling that of the Gall'midcc; but not- 

 withstanding the lowness of its flight it is extremely 

 difficult to obtain, because it glides into the thick 

 bushes with so much rapidity as to elude the aim of 

 the keenest sportsman. It nestles in the bushes, and 

 also resorts to them always when it reposes. Its eggs 

 are described as being only two in number in one 

 hatch, and the nest is rudely constructed of a few 

 sticks at a very little above the surface of the earth. 

 Some writers on birds have described this as an 

 American species ; but there is not in any part of 

 America or its islands any ground dove of the same 

 size as this one, or in the least resembling it in the 

 markings and glossings of its colours. 



We shall now notice one or two species, which, 

 though they preserve the pigeon character in the 

 bill, the head, and all the essential parts of their 

 organisation, are even more terrestrial in their 

 habits than those to which we have alluded. Ac- 

 cording to some writers, these pigeons form a nearer 

 approach to gallinaceous birds than any others of 

 the family, by which nothing more is meant than 

 that a resemblance can be traced by imagination 

 between them in a few more particulars. These 

 resemblances, or " affinities," as the sages term them, 

 put one strongly in mind of Fluellcn's proof of the 

 identity of Macedonia and Monmouth : ' ; Look you, 

 there's a river in Monmouth, and I'll be pound there's 

 a river in Macedonia, and they call it Wye at Mon- 



mouth, and it's out of my prains what they call it in 

 Macedonia ; but it's as like as my fingers to my 

 fingers, and there's saumons in them poth." These 

 pigeons live upon the ground, but roost in low bushes, 

 and their eggs are not confined to two in a hatch, 

 hut are understood to reach as many as eight or ten. 

 The nest is on the ground, and the birds are very 

 soon able to pick up their own food, though it is 

 some time before they are sufficiently winged for 

 being capable of flying. They still preserve so 

 much of the pigeon habit as to roost on low bushes, 

 which is a decided distinction between them and the 

 rouse department of the gallinaceous family, which 

 they are supposed most nearly to resemble. Like 

 those last mentioned, they are found in America and 

 in Southern Africa, and one very peculiar species 

 occurs on the Eastern Islands. 



Blue-headed Ground Dove. This is a very beauti- 

 ful species, a native of the West India Islands, where 

 it is by no means rare, and also of some of the warmer 

 parts of continental America. It measures about 

 eleven inches in length, and weighs about the same 

 as our common partridge. The general plumage is 

 deep brown, with a shade of purple ; the throat, fore 

 neck, and breast, are black, with a white margin 

 between it and the brown ; the head is clear and 

 rich azure blue, and there are three or four lines of 

 feathers of the same colour extending from the gape 

 as far on the sides of the neck as the black extends ; 

 between these and the eye there is a patch of pure 

 white, which shows oft' the blue to great advantage ; 

 the feet are red ; and the bill is reddish at the base 

 and grey at the tip. This bird is generally seen 

 upon the ground, where it runs with great celerity ; 

 but it does not readily take the wing, nor is it very 

 dexterous in flying, as it is obliged to move its wings 

 rapidly, and with a great deal of noise and flutter, as 

 if it were out of its proper element. When upon 

 the ground its attitude something resembles that of a 

 turkey or a guinea fowl ; but still its essential cha- 

 racters are those of a pigeon. 



Carnnculated Ground Dove. With the lovers of 

 affinities this bird makes a still nearer approach to 

 the GallinidtE than the former, inasmuch as there are 

 crimson wattles pendant from the neck. These, how- 

 ever, have no similarity to the wattles of the common 

 domestic cock ; and the head, bill, and general air of 

 the bird, are decidedly those of a pigeon. The 

 crimson naked skin surrounds the bases of both man- 

 dibles of the bill, that from the upper mandible 

 passing backwards, and surrounding the eye, and 

 that from the lower passing, in one branch, two-thirds 

 across the sides of the neck, and in another forming 

 a loose wattle on the breast. 



The full-grown bird measures about eleven inches 

 in length, and is rather thick in the body ; the head, 

 cheeks, and neck, as far as the shoulders, and also 

 the coverts of the wings, are grey, margined with a 

 fine line of white, which makes the individual feathers 

 tell very conspicuously ; the under part, and also the 

 upper tail-coverts, are white ; the tail is reddish 

 brown ; and the quills of the wings have a shade of 

 purple on them. The female is of the same size as 

 the male, and marked with the same colours ; but she 

 entirely wants the bright naked skin on the head by 

 which he is characterised. There are certainly some 

 resemblances between this species and the gallina- 

 ceous birds, though there are others in which it more 

 resembles the pigeon family, of which its organisation. 



