287 



COLUMBA (ENAS. THE BLUE-BACKED DOVE. 



STOCK DOVE. WOOD DOVE. 



Colombe colombin. Columba (Enas. Teram. Man. d'Om. IT. 445. 

 Stock-Dove. Columba yEnas. Selb. Illustr. I. 408. 

 Columba (Enas. Stock Dove. Jen. Brit. Vert. An, 161. 



Plumage of the male greyish-blue ; the sides and bach of the 

 neck splendent with green and purplish-red^ the lower part brown- 

 ish-purple-red ; the bach and lower icing-coterts blue ; ttvo short 

 bands of black on the icing ^ one being on the three inner secondary 

 quills^ the other on three of the secondary coverts. The female 

 similar^ the green of the neck less extended^ the purplish-red 

 paler. 



Male. — The Blue-Backed Dove, which in descriptive works 

 still bears the name of " Stock Dove,"" given to it at a time 

 when it was believed to be the origin of the domestic races, 

 and of the same species as the Rock Dove already described, is, 

 in form, size, and general appearance, so similar to the species 

 just named, that one readily finds an excuse for those who 

 erroneously considered them identical. They were first clearly 

 distinguished and separated by M. Temminck. 



The bill is short, slender, straight ; the tumid basal mem- 

 brane scurfy, the dorsal outline of the upper mandible straight 

 for half its length, then arched and declinate, the edges soft at 

 the base, towards the end sharp, the tip narrow but rounded ; 

 the lower mandible with the dorsal outline slightly convex, the 

 sides nearly erect, the edges toward the end sharp and inflected, 

 the tip obtuse. 



The eyes are rather small, the eyelids bare. The nostrils 

 are linear, wider anteriorly, three twelfths of an inch long. 

 The aperture of the ear is roundish, two twelfths in diameter. 



The tarsi, which are feathered anteriorly about one-third 



