val 
to 
MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS 
The young one’s colouring on Jeaving the nest 
was very like that of the old birds, but it lacked the 
purple tint on the breast, the sheen on the neck, 
and the orange eyes. Its head was greyish, with 
a light dun forehead, and the bacls of the neck dark 
erey. The breast dun grey, shading into pure 
white on the under parts; the back dark dun; the 
wings dark brown, with two bands of copper 
across each (in « later nestling these bands were 
lacking, but the wings were spocted with copper 
instead; perhaps this bird being much weaker 
Jacked enough feather to make a perfect line). 
These lighter markings disappear when the birds 
are a few weeks old. The tail of the young Soli- 
tary was olive-dun, with the three outer feathers 
on each side tipped with white, and the next two 
pairs with lighter tips. 
In July the Solitary doves nested again, but 
failed to rear any young; later still another nesi 
was made and one young one hatched, but 
when still in the nest it began to fail, and one day 
was found dead. I think it was really hatched too 
late; the days and nights had begun to be cold, 
and the little thing did not thrive properly. 
Another young bird hatched in 19608—some four 
years later—was most carefully tended by a hen 
Bronze-wing, who brooded both it and her own 
young one. The two young doves were great 
friends, and the Solitary used to nestle up to the 
Bronze-wing, but unfortunately its parents neg- 
lected it and it died a few days later. 
J have had the Solitary doves some eight years, 
and every year they nest often and fertile eggs are 
laid. Yet my first young one was my last; I have 
never reared a young Solitary to maturity save in 
this one instance; it seems very strange, for the 
breeding of this one particular bird was so easy. 
I have never known this pair of doves to be tire- 
some with others of their tribe. I have them still, 
and they are quite gentle to the other inmates of 
the aviary. The young bird, who must now be 
about six years old, I gave away to a friend. 
This young one, unlike his parents, is a very 
bad-tempered bird, though I believe a good deal of 
this is due to his loneliness in having no mate. 
My old birds are at the present time—June, 1910— 
nesting again, they having had several cggs this 
season, but so far no young ones. The hen is a 
very nervous bird, the cock being far steadier ; 
some time ago he lost the sight of one eve, pro- 
bably through a stab from another bird; you could 
not tell, unless you held him in the hand, that the 
eye was injured, so it has fortunately not spoilt his 
beauty. : 
I consider these doves very hardy; I cannot find 
any record of their being kept at the Zoological 
Gardens. 
THE VIOLET (OR WHITE-FRONTED) 
DOVE. 
(Leptoptila jamaicensis). 
Habitat.—Jamaica. 
Length.—.\bout 11 inches. 
well proportioned. 
Colouring.—Adult male—The forehead, cheeks, 
throat, breast, and under-parts snowy white. The 
top of the head a soft ash-grey. The back and 
wings olive brown, but the shoulder butts are very 
pure white and the long wing quills blackish. The 
tail is olive-brown above, and black and white 
beneath. The back and sides of the neck the most 
beautiful metallic colouring, changing in every 
light, the chief colour being pinkish, shot with 
golden green and again with bluish green, first 
one ‘colour showing and then the other. The 
pinkish colour is more noticeable on the sides of 
the neck, and in some birds comes down so low as 
to form a background for the white shoulder butts, 
throwing up their whiteness in a most striking 
way. The feet are crimson, the beak blackish 
grey; a dark line runs from the beak to the eye. 
The iris is light straw-colour surrounded with a 
ring of reddish skin. The female is smaller and 
slighter than the male, her forehead more greyish, 
the white parts not quite so pure. 
Shape, rounded, but 
WILD LIFE. 
Gosse tells us that the Violet dove is chiefly 
found in the upland districts; he notes that it is a 
species that habitually lives on the ground, walk- 
ing about picking up various seeds. The physic 
nut, orange pips, and sop-seeds, as well as large 
fragments of the mango-seeds (chewed by the 
hogs), form some of its favourite foods. The flesh 
of the Violet dove is considered good to eat, being 
‘Shite, juicy, and well-flavoured, without being 
liable to bitterness.’’ 
It has no regular roosting-place, often spending 
the night on some low log or stone near the place 
where it fed at nightfall. The nest is often built 
in the log-wood, or if in the woods a fairly tall tree 
is chosen. The nest is composed of a few loose 
twigs and some leaves in the centre. The Violet 
dove is often caught by the natives, being easily 
taken in springes. The coo of this dove is five, 
very melancholy notes, and the negroes, who 
delight to translate the voices of birds into words, 
ascribe to it the call of ‘‘Rain-come-wet-me- 
through.’’ 
CGosse notes what a gentle bird the Violet dove 
is, and tells how he once toolx one in his hand, 
just caught in a springe, and it nestled comfortably 
down, ‘‘permitting its pretty head and neck to be 
stroked, without an effort to escape, without a 
flutter of its wings.”’ 
