SEVEN NEW WHITE-WINGED DOVES 



7 



(1889). Cole (1906) was at Chichen Itza in March 1904 and collected 

 three specimens March 10-12. 



Paynter (1955, p. 118) reported the habitat to be chiefly in coastal 

 scrub and deciduous forest, but occasionally in clearings within the 

 rain forest zone. 



Peters (1913, p. 372) took two females on March 16 and 17, 1912, 

 at Camp Mengel, on the Rio Hondo, 36 miles southwest of Chetumal, 

 Quintana Roo. I examined one of these specimens, MCZ No. 60754; 

 it is a small bird, typical of peninsulae. Its rectrices are narrow, and 

 its measurements are wing 145.0, tail 96.0, tarsus 22.5, and culmen 

 18.5 mm. 



D. B. Legters, Merida, who lived and hunted in Yucatan for many 

 years, wrote me in 1961 that he found great numbers of white-winged 

 doves on the northern coast of Yucatan between Dzilam and Telchac 

 in April, May, and June, nesting among the coconut palms and 

 mangroves. A very few remained through the year, mostly in the 

 coconut groves. Chapman (1896) found whitewings in large numbers 

 in the old cornfields near Chichen Itza in March. 



Dr. Allan R. Phillips wrote me in 1965 that he saw no whitewings 

 in Mexico on Isla Mujeres, January 15-18, only one on Isla Cozumel, 

 January 19-23, and very few anywhere in Yucatan, or on the pen- 

 insula north or east of Isla del Carmen, where they should have 

 been common. He found none on the Isla Cozumel during exten- 

 sive daily field collecting, November 3-18, 1965. 



During my field work in northwestern Yucatan in January 1960, 

 the only white-winged doves seen or heard were several in the dry 

 woodland south of Uman near the aguada (watering place) Xcamal, 

 and one near the boundary with Campeche, a few miles north of 

 Bolonchen de Rejon, both localities on the Merida-Campeche highway. 



Indians who live near the aguada Xcamal and who had learned a 

 good deal about the "zac pakal," as the Mayas call this dove, said 

 that they were more common during the nesting season, which 

 begins in late March and extends through May, and that few were 

 present the rest of the year. They added that nests were found in 

 densely foliaged, thorny trees near the aguada, some of them placed 

 quite low, and that only one brood was raised. I heard two sing 

 briefly, and their songs were weaker in volume than typical asiatica. 

 When flushed they flew low through the trees, more in the manner 

 of white-fronted doves, rather than above the trees as whitewings 

 usually do. 



Three were collected and 20 seen at a watering place 16 miles east 

 of the city of Campeche on January 31, 1960. One specimen was 

 an adult male, the second an adult female, and the third an immature 

 female with two juvenal primaries; all were peninsulae. Two birds 

 there sang in the same low volume that characterized those noted at 

 the aguada Xcamal. Two specimens from San Jose Carpizo, Campeche 



