_Mountain Partridge._
_Geotrygon montana._
_Columba montana_, +Linn.+
_Columba Martinica_, +Temm.+ Pig. 5, 6.
? _Peristera cuprea_, +Wagl.+
[93] Length 9¹⁄₂ inches, expanse 17¹⁄₂, flexure 6, tail 3⁴⁄₁₀,
rictus 1, tarsus 1¹⁄₄, middle toe 1¹⁄₁₀. Irides golden yellow; feet
flesh-colour, front of tarsi bright red; beak reddish horn-colour,
base dark-red; naked skin of face blue, red in the centre; edge of
eyelids scarlet.
Male. Upper parts bright chestnut, more or less flushed with
a purple iridescence, chiefly on neck and back. Breast pale
purplish-brown, softened to white on throat and chin; a band of
deep chestnut runs forward from the ear to the throat. Belly and
under tail-coverts, buff-white.
Female. Upper parts dark olive, glossed; a few (sometimes nearly
all) of the feathers tipped with bay; head rather browner.
Wing-quills blackish: tail blackish, outmost feather tipped with
white, a broad spot of chestnut on the inner web. Throat whitish;
breast and sides dusky; under parts reddish-white.
I am convinced that our Partridge dove is the _montana_ of Linnæus,
and not his _Martinica_; the _Martinica_ of Temminck, and not his
_montana_; the _Pigeon roux de Cayenne_ of Buffon, and not his _P. de
la Martinique_; and that it is not the _montana_ of Audubon;—provided
the descriptions and figures of these naturalists faithfully represent
their originals.
This bird, the female of which is the least beautiful of all our
Doves, is generally scattered. It affects a well-wooded country, and
is found in such woods as are more choked with bushes than such as the
Whitebelly prefers; though they often dwell together. It is essentially
a ground-pigeon, walking in couples or singly, seeking for seeds or
gravel on the earth. It is often seen beneath a pimento picking up the
fallen berries; the physic-nut also and other oily seeds afford it
sustenance. Sam once observed a pair of these Doves eating the large
seed of a mango, that had been crushed. With seeds, I have occasionally
found small slugs, a species of _Vaginulus_, common in damp places,
in its gizzard. Often when riding through the Cotta-wood, a dense
and tangled coppice near Content, I have been startled by the loud
whirring of one of these birds, and at the same instant its short,
thick-set form has shot across on rapid wing, conspicuous for a moment
from its bright rufous plumage, but instantly lost in the surrounding
bushes. When on the ground it is wary and difficult of approach; but
if it takes a tree, it seems less fearful, and will allow the aim of
the sportsman. It is in the dry season, and particularly during the
parching norths that prevail at intervals from November to March, that
the Partridge, as well as one or two other species of Dove, is numerous
in the lowland woods. In the summer it is much less frequently seen and
then only in the deep woods.
In some districts it is very abundant, though Dr. Chamberlaine
intimates that it has become scarce in the neighbourhood of Kingston.
He mentions, as localities in which it may still be found, “the
pastures beneath the Ferry-hills, and other cool and retired retreats
in the parishes of St. Catherine’s, St. John’s, St. Ann’s, &c.” To
these I can add from my own observation, that it is common about Auld
Ayr and Shrewsbury woods, and abundant at Content, the Cotta-wood, and
Vinegar Hill, in St. Elizabeth’s and Westmoreland. In the last named
locality, a lad caught twenty or more, in springes, during two or three
days, in February. It is readily kept in a cage with other Doves, and
fed with maize.
In the Short Cut of Paradise, where the sweet-wood abounds, the
Partridge is also numerous; in March and April when these berries are
ripe, their stomachs are filled with them. Here at the same season,
their cooing resounds, which is simply a very sad moan, usually uttered
on the ground; but on one occasion we heard it from the limb of a
cotton tree at Cave, on which the bird sitting, with its head drawn in,
was shot in the very act. But at a little distance, the voice is not
distinguishable from the moan of the Mountain Witch.
A notion prevails that the dark coloured bird is the male, and the
rufous one the female; but I have proved the contrary, by repeated
dissections.
One day in June, I went down with a young friend into a wooded valley
at Content, to look at a Partridge’s nest. As we crept cautiously
towards the spot, the male bird flew from it. I was surprised at its
rudeness; it was nothing but half-a-dozen decayed leaves laid one on
another, and on two or three dry twigs, but from the sitting of the
birds it had acquired a slight hollowness, about as much as that of a
skimmer. It was placed on the top, (slightly sunk among the leaves) of
a small bush, not more than three feet high, whose glossy foliage and
small white blossoms reminded me of a myrtle. There were two young,
recently hatched; callow and peculiarly helpless, their eyes closed,
their bills large and misshapen,—they bore little resemblance to birds.
On another occasion, I saw the male shot while sitting; the nest was
then placed on a slender bush, about five feet from the ground. There
were but two eggs, of a very pale buff colour; sometimes, however,
they are considerably darker.
When seen alive, or recently killed, the affinity of the Partridge-dove
to the Mountain Witch is very apparent; the stout form, the colour of
the feet, of the beak, and of the eyelids, and particularly the conical
form of the head, and a tendency to the projecting hood-like plumage of
the occiput, help to indicate its true place. It has little resemblance
to either a _Zenaida_ or a _Peristera_. The flesh is very white; like
that of its congener.
* * * * *
The woodsmen speak of a Blue Partridge, and a Red-necked Dove; the
former is figured by Robinson, and is no doubt a ground pigeon.
The Spanish Partridge (_Starnænas cyanocephala_) is not considered
as indigenous in Jamaica, though it is frequently imported thither
from Cuba. It may, however, yet be found in the precipitous woods of
the north side; Albin, Brisson, Buffon, and Temminck, attribute it
positively to our island.
+Order.+—GALLINÆ. (_Poultry._)
+Fam.+—PHASIANIDÆ. (_The Pheasants._)