462 



BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



LEPTOTILA PLUMBEICEPS (Sclater and Salvin). 



BONAPARTE'S DOVE. 



Adult male. — Forehead grayish white or pale bluish gray, passing, 

 through deeper bluish gray, into slate-gray on crown, occiput, and 

 nape, the hindneck duller or more brownish gray (usually lighter 

 than occiput and nape) ; rest of upper parts plain olive-brown, some- 

 times inchning to warm sepia or bister, especially on back, scapulars, 

 and wing-coverts, the extreme upper back and lower hindneck some- 

 times faintly glossed with purple; alulae, primary coverts, and pri- 

 maries dusky; rectrices (except middle pair) with the brown passing 

 into dusky subterminally, the three outer pairs tipped with white, 

 this, together with the blackish sub terminal area increasing in width 

 to the outermost rectrix; malar, suborbital, and auricular regions, 

 lower throat, foreneck, and chest, vinaceous-buff, passing into white 

 on chin and upper throat, more or less shaded with gray on sides of 

 neck, and posteriorly, passing, through a more pinkish hue on breast, 

 into white on lower abdomen, anal region, and under tail-coverts, the 

 longer of which have the outer web more or less broadly edged or 

 clouded with brownish gray; sides and flanks (underneath wings) Hght 

 bufFy olive-brown; axillars and under wing-coverts cinnamonrufous, 

 the proximal portion of inner webs of remiges similar but paler and 

 duller; bill black; legs and feet light brownish (red in life) ; length (skins) , 

 239-284 (257); wing, 129-145 (137.8); tail, 84-98 (89.8); exposed cul- 

 men, 15-17.5 (16) ; tarsus, 27-32 (30) ; middle toe, 22.5-26.5 (24.4). « 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male, and perhaps not alv/ays 

 distinguishable, but usually ( ?) with coloration of head, neck and 

 chest duller, the forehead more distinctly gray (less whitish), the 

 color of neck and chest much duller (inchning more to drab or hght 

 cmnamon-drab); length (skins), 239-261 (250); wing, 128-144 (133.6); 

 tail, 81-96 (87.3); exposed culmen, 14.5-18 (15.5); tarsus, 27.5-31 

 (29.6); middle toe, 22.5-25 (23.7).^ 



o Sixteen specimens. 



& Seven specimens. 



Locality. 



MALES. 



Five adult males from Vera Cruz 



Three adult males from Tabasco 



Two adult males from British Honduras 



One adult male from Hondm-as 



One adult male from Nicaragua 



Four adult males from Costa Rica 



FEMALES. 



One adult female from Tabasco 



Two adult females from Honduras 



Three adult females from Costa Rica 



One adult female from Colombia (Rio Zapata). 



Middle 

 toe. 



25.4 

 24.5 

 23.2 



23.5 



25 



23.6 



24.5 



24.5 

 23.2 

 23 



Some Mexican and Guatemalan specimens are considerably darker in coloration 

 than those from British Honduras and southward, but the series is not sufficiently 

 large to show whether subspecific separation of a southern form is desirable. A speci- 

 men from Colombia (Rio Zapata) is, so far as I am able to see, precisely like examples 

 from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, etc. 



