WHITE-WINGED ZENAIDA DOVE. 
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feet are bright crimson, the beak black. The hen 
is the same colour as the cock, but there is not so 
much sheen on her neck, and she is slightly smaller 
in size. 
WILD LIFE. 
The White-winged Zenaida Dove is one of the 
commonest birds in the West Indies. It feeds ona 
kind of small bean, rather like a wild pea. This 
plant is very common, and grows as a bush, cover- 
ing many acres. 
We are told by Gosse in his “Birds of Jamaica’’ 
that the White-wing lives in flocks of 20 or 30, and 
when flying the birds go in a body like tame 
pigeons. They feed on the seeds of the castor-oil 
plant, the orange, and the physic-nut, and are very 
easily taken in springes baited with orange-seeds. 
Sometimes only the foot is caught in the noose, 
when the bird will not struggle, but occasionally 
one is caught by the neck; and Gosse tells of one 
instance where a poor White-wing cut its head off 
with giving a sudden jerk when it felt itself 
caught. The black natives are not humane in 
their trapping of birds, nor does their suffering or 
injury when caught arouse their pity. They will 
set their traps and not visit them for days, quite 
careless of the fact that the poor prisoners may be 
injured as well as starving. When the rains fall 
the White-wings leave the open country and take 
to the woods and morasses. They are said to 
build a very fragile nest in the pimento, orange, 
and seaside grape. 
LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 
In June, 1901, about 50 White-winged doves 
were imported to England; they were said to have 
come from Egypt (which was obviously an error), 
and were sold under the name of Pecunia Doves. 
I bought a pair for 15/-, and though the birds were 
newly imported, they were in good feather and 
condition. The cock, however, unfortunately 
injured himself on the journey, for he arrived with 
the crown of his head covered with dried blood, 
and besides this, one side of his face quite pushed 
in, giving him a most curious look, as if the face 
were on one side. Strangely enough the eye was 
uninjured. I can hardly think this latter hurt was 
of recent date, for the bird did not seem greatly 
affected by it. 
About the middle of May the birds began to nest. 
Two nests were failures, both being deserted, and 
one, if not both, contained fertile eggs. During 
this time the cock was very bad tempered towards 
the other doves in the aviary, never really hurting 
them, but chasing them about. Towards the end 
of June a third nest was made, and this time the 
birds sat well. On July oth I found an empty 
eggshell on the floor, and a few days later could 
see the young ones in the nest quite plainly. 
They were very pretty—soft drab with brown 
eyes; the white band on the wings, and also the 
white in their tails, was very decided. By July 
22nd, being then about a fortnight old, the first 
young one left the nest, followed a day or two later 
by the second; both seemed rather weak on their 
feet. However, they both survived, and by August 
Ist stayed out of the nest altogether. When they 
first appeared they were 7 or 8 inches in length, 
and very long and slender in shape. Both birds 
grew very fast, and soon were nearly as large as 
the hen, but slimmer. They were rather darker 
drab than the old birds, and had no blue skin round 
the eye nor sheen on the neck; the eyes were dark 
brown, and in one young bird I could just see the 
dark mark coming beneath. The feathers round 
the eye were whitish, and a wash of pale chestnut 
came below the eye, merging on to the throat. 
The feet were pale flesh colour, the bealx light 
pinkish. 
When the White-winged cock attacks another 
bird he does so in the same manner as the Barbary, 
lowering his head until it is in a straight line 
with his body and then charging the offender. 
Once only (as far as I remember) have I had a 
dove of this size killed outright by another. I was 
so tired of the aggressiveness of a cock White- 
wing and a cock Crested dove that I put these two 
pairs together, thinking one would be the master, 
and the other would settle down, and all the rest 
of my little dove community would benefit. An 
hour or two later I came down to the aviary, and 
was aghast to find my White-wing cock laid on the 
aviary floor dead; he seemed to have only had one 
peck just between the neck and shoulders; he was 
a splendid specimen, and in spite of his bad temper, 
a great favourite of mine. 
At the time the White-wing nested I had three 
other pairs of doves that all brought up young ones 
during the season in the same aviary. These were 
Bleeding Hearts, Necklaces, and Senegals, and 
the aviary was only 16 x 63 feet in size. The 
wonder is that any of them bred in so crowded a 
space; two pairs of birds were quite plenty, at the 
very most three, but with the latter number one 
could not hope for much success. Nowadays I 
keep far fewer birds together, and am sure it is 
much the wiser plan if you want them to do well. 
The White-winged dove was kept at the Zoo in 
1874. It is often offered for sale at the present 
time, the usual price being about 16/- a pair. It 
is very hardy and stands our climate well. Just 
lately I have seen it offered for so low a sum as 
7/6 a pair. 
