THE GROUND DOVE. 
21 
These Pigeons are met with in groups 1 - 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-patclies, 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 6^ cents each. They readily become 
domesticated, and indeed so very gentle 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 showed 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 
Bandy 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 Eish 
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. Y. 4 
