472 GROUND DOVE. 



Mississippi, as far as Prairie du Chien, and in that direction extends to 

 the borders of Upper Canada. 



The Ground Dove is met with from the lower parts of Louisiana to 

 Cape Hatteras, following the coast quite round the Floridas, but very 

 seldom seen at any great distance in the interior. It is unknown in the 

 State of Mississippi ; and 1 will venture to add, that one of these birds 

 has never been seen in Kentucky, although some writers have alleged 

 that they occur there. They are more abundant on the sea islands of 

 Georgia, and the middle portions of the coast of East Florida, than any 

 where else. A search for them an hundred miles inland would in all pro- 

 bability prove fruitless. 



The White-headed Pigeon is confined to about three hundred miles 

 of the Florida Keys. It seldom, if ever, visits the mainland. It re- 

 mains with us about seven months of the year. 



The Zenaida Dove seldom reaches farther east, along the Florida 

 Keys, than Cape Light-House. It never visits the Main. Its residence 

 with us is shorter than that of the White-headed Pigeon by a full month. 



The Key West Pigeon has never been met with elsewhere than on the 

 4sland of that name. It remains there about five months only. 



The same is the case with the Blue-headed Ground Pigeon, com- 

 monly called the Cuba Partridge, which is the rarest of all the species 

 known to me that resort to the Floridas. 



In the above account, I have placed the species according to the num- 

 ber of individuals of each that occur in our country, beginning with the 

 Passenger Pigeon, -which is the most numerous, and ending with the 

 Blue-headed Pigeon, which is the rarest ; and I beg of you, kind reader, 

 ■to recollect that hear-say has no part as a foundation for the results 

 in this statement. I may also inform you, that curiosity, in part, prompted 

 me to present it, it having been written in 1832, with the view of seeing 

 if any of these birds shall become more or less numerous, or extend or 

 diminish their range. 



The flight of the Ground Dove is low, easy, and accompanied with a 

 whistling sound, produced by the action of the wings, when the bird 

 is surprised and forced to fly. It is less pi-otracted than that of any 

 other species with which I am acquainted in the United States, with the 

 exception of the Blue-headed Pigeon. The crossing of the Gulf Stream 

 by the latter bird is more surprising than the extended flight of the 



