THE GROUND DOVE. OJ 



These Pigeons are met with in groups of four or five, and it is seldom 

 that more than a dozen are seen together. They prefer the thinly grassed 

 sandy portions of cotton fields, pea-patches, and such places. In East 

 Florida they are seen in the villages, and resort to the orange groves about 

 them, where they frequently breed. I have often found them in the inner 

 court of the famous Spanish fort of St. Augustine, where I have been 

 surprised to see them rise almost perpendicularly, to reach above the 

 parapets, by which they insured their escape. They are easily caught in 

 traps, and at that place are sold at 64 cents each. They readily become 

 domesticated, and indeed so very gently are they, that I have seen a pair 

 which, having been caught at the time when their young were quite small, 

 and placed in an aviary, at once covered the little ones, and continued to 

 nourish them until full-grown. They afterwards raised a second brood in 

 the same nest, and shewed great spirit in keeping the Jays and Starlings 

 from their charge. In this aviary, which belonged to Dr. Wilson of 

 Charleston, several other species bred, among which were the Carolina 

 Dove, the Cardinal-bird, the Blue Grosbeak, the White-throated Sparrow, 

 the Towhe Bunting, the Common Partridge, and the Wood Duck. The 

 Ground Doves were fed on rice and other small grain. 



The nest of this species is large for the size of the bird, and compact. Its 

 exterior is composed of dry twigs, its interior of grasses disposed in a 

 circular form. It is usually placed in low bushes or hedges, or in orange- 

 trees in orchards. Early in April the female deposits her two pure white 

 eggs; and sometimes three, but more generally two broods are reared in a 

 season. The male struts before the female in the manner of the Barbary 

 Ringed Dove. 



A few of these birds remain all the year in the vicinity of Charleston, but 

 the greater number retire either to the sea islands or to the Floridas. I met 

 with them on the Keys resorted to by the Zenaida Dove, and saw some on 

 Sandy Island, which lies six miles south from Cape Sable, the extreme point 

 of the peninsula. They were so gentle that I approached them within less 

 than two yards. Their nest was placed on the top of a cactus, not more 

 than two feet high. I took some pleasure in destroying a pair of Fish 

 Crows, that were waiting an opportunity to deprive them of their young. 



This beautiful Pigeon is rarely met with to the westward of the mouths 

 of the Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. None were seen 

 on our way to the Texas. The eggs measure seven and a half eighths of 

 an inch by rather more than five-eighths, and are thus of an elongated form. 



In a wild state, the food of this species consists of grass-seeds and various 

 small berries, with which they pick up a large proportion of gravel to assist 

 digestion. They are extremely fond of dusting themselves in the sand, 



Vol. V. 4 



