THE BLUE-HEADED PIGEON. 23 



Length 6| inches, extent of wings 11; bill along the back -ff, along the 

 edge T \; tarsus f j. 



Adult Female. 



The female is paler in the tints, the colour above being light brownish- 

 grey, the lower parts much lighter, the throat-feathers broadly margined 

 with dull white. The forehead and wing-coverts are but slightly tinged 

 with red, and the hind neck is less blue than in the male. 



Length 6| inches. 



Young Bird. 



The young resembles the female. 



The Wild Orange. 



Catrds aurantium, Linn. 



THE BLUE-HEADED PIGEON, OR GROUND DOVE. 



~^Starn2enas cyanocephala, Linn. 

 PLATE CCLXXXIV Male and Females. 



A few of these birds migrate each spring from the Island of Cuba to the 

 Keys of Florida, but are rarely seen, on account of the deep tangled woods 

 in which they live. Early in May 1832, while on a shooting excursion 

 with the commander of the United States Revenue Cutter Marion, I saw 

 a pair of them on the western side of Key West. They were near the 

 water, picking gravel, but on our approaching them they ran back into the 

 thickets, which were only a few yards distant. Several fishermen and 

 wreckers informed us that they were more abundant on the "Mule Keys;" 

 but although a large party and myself searched these islands for a whole 

 day, not one did we discover there. I saw a pair which I was told had 

 been caught when young on the latter Keys, but I could not obtain any 

 other information respecting them, than that they were fed on cracked corn 

 and rice, which answered the purpose well. 



I have represented three of these Pigeons on the ground, with some of 



