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._) GUINEA-FOWL.[94] _Numida meleagris._—+Linn.+ [94] Length 21¹⁄₄ inches, expanse 31¹⁄₂, flexure 10¹⁄₂, tail 5¹⁄₂, rictus 1¹⁄₂, tarsus 3¹⁄₂, middle toe 2⁴⁄₁₀. Irides hazel; feet black.