THE RUDDY QUAIL-DOVE. 155 



trifle smaller, measuring 28.5 by 21.5 millimetres. I found a nest in August, 

 containing two buff-colored eggs which were broken before I measured them. 

 Its call notes are rather misleading, seeming near when distant, and again the 

 reverse. They resemble the syllable 'hup' repeatedly and quickly given. It 

 is not rare; breeds and inhabits the forests, and remains a good deal of the 

 time on the ground searching for food among the dry leaves." 



Mr. Philip Henry Gosse, in his "Birds of Jamaica," says: "The Mountain 

 Partridge affects a well-wooded country, and is found in such woods as are more 

 choked with bushes. * * * It is essentially a ground Pigeon, walking in 

 couples or singly, seeking for seeds and gravel on the earth. * * * It 

 is often seen beneath a pimento picking up the fallen berries; the physic nut, 

 also, and other oily seeds afford it sustenance. I once observed a pair of 

 these Doves eating the large seeds of a mango that had been crashed. With 

 seeds, I have occasionally found small slugs, a species of Vaginulus, common 

 in damp places, in its gizzard. * * * 



"In the Short Cut of Paradise, where the sweet wood abounds, the Par- 

 tridge is also numerous; in March and April, when these berries are ripe, their 

 stomachs are filled with them. Here, at the same season, their cooing resounds, 

 which is simply a very sad moan usually uttered on the ground, but on one 

 occasion we heard it from the limb of a cotton tree at Cave, on which the 

 bird was sitting with its head drawn in; it was shot in the very act. * * * 



"One day in June I went down with a young friend into a wooded valley 

 at Content to look at a Partridge nest. As we crept cautiously toward the spot, 

 the male bird flew from it. I was surprised at its rudeness; it was nothing but 

 a half dozen decayed leaves laid on one another, and on two or three dry twigs, 

 but from the sitting of the birds it had acquired a slight hollowness, about as 

 much as a skimmer. It was placed on the top (slightly sunk among the leaves) 

 of a small bush not more than 3 feet high, whose glossy foliage and small white 

 blossoms reminded me of a myrtle. There were two young recently hatched, 

 callow and peculiarly helpless, their eyes closed, their bills large and misshapen; 

 they bore little resemblance to birds. On another occasion I saw the male shot 

 while sitting; the nest was then placed on a slender bush, about 5 feet from the 

 ground. There were but two eggs, of a very pale buff color; sometimes, how- 

 ever, they are considerably darker." 



Seven eggs of this species are in the U. S. National Museum collection, 

 all taken in the West India Islands. They are oval in shape, and rather 

 more rounded than is usually the case with Pigeon eggs. In color they vary 

 considerably, from a pale cream to a salmon buff. The average measurement 

 is 27 by 21 millimetres. The largest egg measures 29.5 by 22, the smallest 

 24 by 19.5 millimetres. 



The type specimen (No. 17886, PL 2, Fig. 26), from a set of two, was 

 collected at Sainte Marie, West Indies,- April, 1877, by Mr. F. A. Ober. One of 

 these eggs is still darker colored, and three are somewhat lighter tinted. 

 Their shells are very smooth and glossy. 



