50 BULLETIN 326, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



set, and at least two broods are reared in a season. While the females were 

 incubating the males fed together, often in the yautia or cane fields. "When 

 caring for their young the females feed in the early morning, filling the crop 

 with seeds, and then about 9 o'clock fly in to water, usually following well- 

 defined routes. After drinking they perch quietly in the trees, and in about 

 30 minutes the " pigeons milk " forms as a thick curd, beginning in the lower 

 portion of the crop. After June flocks of a dozen or more young gathered by 

 themselves were common. They are said to have nested formerly on the 

 ground, but now they build almost entirely in trees to escape the mongoose. 



This species is one of the few found in cane fields, and it occurs regularly, 

 even when the cane is well grown. These doves are very timid and show great 

 fear of sparrow hawks, sometimes refusing to fly when they are in the neigh- 

 borhood. During the breeding season the males were found in early morning 

 feeding in the cane fields or else cooing from the hills, while the females were 

 above on the hillsides. When there was a heavy dew the birds were inactive 

 until 10 or 11 o'clock. 



Food. — Seventy-two stomachs of the ground dove were examined and the food 

 was found to be almost entirely vegetable. Animal matter, though present in 

 10 stomachs, amounted to only 0.25 per cent and may be considered accidental. 

 Fragments of ants occurred in eight, while in the other two were spherical 

 shining scale insects known as ground pearls {Margarodes formicarum) . These 

 are sometimes found loose in the soil, and from their appearance might be 

 picked up as gravel to aid digestion. 



The belief common in some localities that these doves consume many insects 

 is not borne out by stomach examination. Like others of the pigeon family 

 having similar habits, ground doves are almost entirely granivorous. As an 

 instance of the unreliability of unverified field observations, I saw a bird on 

 Vieques Island March 30 hopping rapidly about in the small terminal twigs of a 

 mufieco tree, apparently in pursuit of insects. After watching it for a minute 

 I collected it, and found to my surprise that it was a ground dove, and, on 

 examining the stomach and crop in the laboratory, found seeds only and not a 

 trace of animal matter. 



Practically all the food, or, to be exact, 99.75 per cent of it, is composed of 

 seeds. These are picked up usually in cultivated fields, the borders of road- 

 ways, trails, and other open localities. Weed seeds, as the term is commonly 

 applied, form about one-fourth of this mass, though undoubtedly many classed 

 here as miscellaneous should come under this head. Purslane, lamb's-quarters, 

 various other seeds of the goosefoot family, amaranth, caltrop, spurges, and 

 mallows are most commonly eaten, all of them noxious to the agriculturist. 

 Grass and sedge seeds form another great class, amounting to about one-third 

 of the whole. Crab grass and wire grass were taken frequently, and several 

 species of panic grass and sedges form the bulk of the remainder. 



Wild fruits, figs, and species of Rub us amount to only 3.4 per cent, while no 

 grain or cultivated vegetable was found. The remainder consists of a mass of 

 miscellaneous seeds, euphorbias, wild legumes, and seeds of various shrubs 

 abounding in the localities frequented by this dove. As many as 16 varieties 

 were identified in a single bird, counting the contents of crop and gizzard, and 

 sometimes there were large numbers of a single species. One bird had eaten 

 9,600 seeds of purslane and another more than 5,000. In one stomach 2,400 

 Egyptian grass seeds were found and in another 1.450 of the amaranth. Other 

 species were present in considerable numbers in each case. 



Absolutely no harm is done to man or his interests by the ground dove, but, 

 on the contrary, a certain amount of good is accomplished in the destruction of 



