300 GYRANTES. COLUMBAD^. 



clusters of the fiddle-wood, attract him. He feeds 

 early in the morning, and late in the afternoon: 

 large numbers resort to a single tree, (though not 

 strictly gregarious,) and when this is observed, the 

 sportsman, by going thither before dawn, and lying 

 in wait, may shoot them one by one, as they arrive. 

 In September and October they are in fine condition, 

 often exceedingly fat and juicy, and of exquisite 

 flavour. In March the clammy-cherry displays its 

 showy scarlet racemes, to which the Bald-pates flock. 

 The Hopping Dick, Woodpecker, and Guinea-fowl, 

 feed also upon it. In April, Sam tells me he has 

 seen as many as thirty, almost covering a tree, feed- 

 ing on berries which he believes were those of the 

 bully-tree. Late in the year they resort to the saline 

 morasses, to feed on the seeds of the black-mangrove, 

 which I have repeatedly found in the craw ; I have 

 even seen one descend to the ground beneath a 

 mangrove, doubtless in search of the fallen seeds. 

 In general, however, the Bald-pate is an arboreal 

 pigeon, his visits to the earth being very rare. 

 He often feeds at a distance from home; so that 

 it is a common thing to observe, just before night- 

 fall, straggling parties of two or three, or indi- 

 viduals, rushing along with arrowy swiftness in a 

 straight line to some distant wood. 



The Bald-pate is a noble bird; plump, yet of 

 a graceful form; the iridescent scale-like feathers 

 of his neck, with their black borders, are very strik- 

 ing : he is staid and sedate in manners, when sitting, 

 and there is something of supercilious sternness in 

 his countenance, which, combined with his snow- 



