390 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 





Chnwirpdia pfjssfrina. 



Si'. Char. Back, rump, u.xpo.'seil surface of tertials, and tail above, uniform grayish- 

 olive ; neck above and occiput tinged with bluish ; forehead, sides of head, and neck, 



under parts generally, and lesser upper wing- 

 coverts, light puiplish-red, tinged with dusky 

 towards the tail. Feathers of the head, 

 neck, and fore-breast, margined with a 

 darker shade of the ground-color ; the fore- 

 liead and chin, only, nearly uniform. Feath- 

 ers of the breast dusky-brown in the centre, 

 .^^^„. , this most conspicuous on the jugulum. 



r^\^ ^^ ''^. } Under iving-coverts, axillars, and quills, 



brownish-orange; the latter margined ex- 

 ternally and tipped with dusk3'-brovvn, the 

 tertials almost entirely of this color. Middle 

 tail-feathers like the back ; the others mostly 

 black, the outer one edged towards the tip 

 with white. The exposed surface of the wing 

 variously marked with blotclies exhibiting black, steel-blue, and violet. Bill and feet 

 yellow ; the former tipped with brown. Female with little or none of the purplish-red. 

 Young duller than the adult female, the feathers of upper parts with a narrow terminal 

 bar of white. Length, 6.30 ; wing, 3.50 ; tail, 2.80. 



II.\B. South Atlantic and Gulf coasts; very rarely as far north as Washington. 

 Southern and Lower California ; whole of Middle America, to New Granada and 

 Venezuela ; West Indies. 



. Specimens vary considerably in the deptli of the vinaceous tints, but the 

 variation is nearly as much with the individual as with the locality. As a 

 rule, Florida and AVest India skins are most deeply colored, those from 

 Mexico (particularly from Cape St. Lucas and Orizaba) being much paler in 

 all the tints (var. paUesce7is, Baird) ; but specimens from Guatemala and 

 Costa Rica are undistinguishable from the average of the Florida series. 

 Specimens from New Granada (labelled C granatina, Bonap.), Venezuela 

 (lalielled C albhifta), and the Amazons, are more like Cape St. Lucas speci- 

 mens, differing from them only in slightly smaller size, the colors being the 

 same in the minutest particulars, except that the crissum is perhaps more 

 whitish, the dusky centres of the feathers lieing more concealed. These 

 generalizations are based on fifty-six specimens in the Smithsonian iluseum. 



Habits. According to ^Tr. Audubon, this Dove is found from the lower 

 parts of Louisiana to Cape Hatteras, following the coast quite round Florida, 

 but is seen very seldom to any distance in the interior. He met with none in 

 the State of ^Mississippi. They were more abundant among the sea-islands 

 of Georgia and the middle portions of the coast of East Florida than any- 

 where else. 



This bird has also been taken at Monterey, California, by W. Hutton, and 

 a single accidental specimen has been obtained near Washington, D. C. 



Specimens were obtained near Matamoras, in Tamaulipas, by Dr. Berlan- 

 dier, and subsequently by Lieutenant Couch, who generally found them in 

 the forests or open fields at a distance from dwellings. They were observed 



