_Chamæpelia passerina._
_Columba passerina_, +Linn.+—Aud. pl. 182.
_Chamæpelia passerina_, +Sw.+
[90] Length 6¹⁄₂ inches, expanse 10¹⁄₄, flexure 3¹⁄₄, tail 2⁷⁄₂₀,
rictus ⁶⁄₁₀, tarsus ¹³⁄₂₀, middle toe ¹³⁄₂₀. Irides lake-pink; feet
pale flesh colour; beak orange, black at the tip; eyelids yellow.
Though it would be scarcely proper to term this little bird gregarious,
it is certainly social, being rarely seen alone. In pairs or small
companies of three or four, it frequents pastures, on the short turf
of which it runs with considerable speed; and is rather loath to take
wing, often allowing a person to approach within a few yards. If one
fly, however, all fly; but seldom go far; alighting either on the
ground again, or on some neighbouring tree of small elevation. As it
runs along, the tail is usually erected, which gives it the aspect of a
miniature fowl.
I have found the craw full of small seeds of grasses; they also
eat the seeds of the _Jatropha_ and of the castor-oil plant, and
particularly those of the gamboge-thistle, (_Argemone_,) so common
in pastures. They are fond of picking about the beds of shallots and
escalions, for minute seeds exposed in the newly-turned earth. They
are, therefore, readily taken in springes made of horse-hair; they are
more commonly caught by the neck than by the feet, and not seldom, as I
am assured, is the neck quite cut off; though I presume the springe in
such cases must be of stronger material.
The Ground-dove is numerous all the year round. In March, I observed
it particularly abundant on the banks of the Rio Cobre, especially on
a flat gravelly bed, partially surrounded by the bending stream near
Spanish Town. The boys of the neighbourhood took advantage of the
thirsty birds’ resort to the water, by strewing about the spot the
seeds of the cockspur, (_Pisonia aculeata_); a burr so adhesive, that
if one touch but a feather, it is immovable; a very little struggling
entangles other feathers, and the bird is utterly helpless. So firmly
tenacious is the hold, that even when the bird is in the hand the seed
can be removed only by plucking away each feather it has touched. Many
are caught by this singular artifice.
It is very easily deprived of life. I have known one fly into a room,
and, striking its head against the ceiling, fall down and die in an
instant.
From April to June the low woods resound with the coo of this little
Dove. Sometimes it resembles the word _meho?_ in an interrogative tone,
loud, querulous, and pertinacious in iteration. At others it is like
children calling _whoop_. It is not at all plaintive in its character.
There is a singular projection on the outline of the inner web of the
fourth primary, in this genus, and more slightly on that of the fifth.
The object of this peculiarity it is not easy to conjecture.
Dr. Robinson, having weighed one, records the weight as one ounce
sixteen grains, troy. He mentions also, what I have not seen, that
“the irides consist of, first, one ring of yellow, then one of black,
a narrower of black, and another of yellow, broader.” (MSS. ii. 97.)
Wilson’s description appears to me to have been taken from a preserved
skin.