BIRDS OF ISrOETH AND MIDDLE AMEEICA. 467 



Geophaps versicolor Des Murs, Icon. Orn., livr. 8, March, 1847, pi. 47. — 

 Reichenbach, Syn. Av. Novit., Cohimbariae, 1851, pi. 227, figs. 2482, 2483. 



[Peristera] versicolor Gray, Gen. Birds, Index, 1849, 115. 



[Gcotnjgon] versicolor Sharpe, Hand-list, i, 1899, 88. 



Geotrygon sylvatica Gosse, Birds Jamaica, 1847, 316 (Jamaica; habits); Illustr. 

 Birds Jamaica, 1849, pi. 84; Naturalist's Soj. in Jamaica, 1851, 173. — 

 Albrecht, .Journ. fiir Om., 1862, 204. — Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 

 1865, 239; List Vertebr. Anim., 8th ed., 1883, 458.— Hill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. 

 Phila., 1867, 130. 



{Peristera} sylvatica Gray, Gen. Birds, Index, 1849, 111. 



Genus OREOPELEIA Reichenbach. 



Oreopeleia Reichenbach, Av. Syst. Nat., 1852, p. xxv. (Type, Columba martinica 



Linnaeus.) 

 Oropeleia (emendation) Bonaparte, Ann. Sci. Nat., 1854, 140. 

 Oreopclia (emendation) Gray, List Spec. Birds Brit. Mus., pt. iv, Columbae, 1856, 



51.— Burmeister, Syst. Ueb. Th. Bras., iii, pt. 2, 1856, 306. 



Medium-sized to rather small terrestrial Pigeons (length about 190- 

 360 mm.), resembling Geotrygon, but with much smaller and weaker 

 bill, no distinct (if any) tomial notch, distinctly rounded tail, and 

 feathers of occiput and nape not elongated, those of forehead not 

 hairlike nor stiffened. 



Bill usually small and weak, the exposed culmen but little longer 

 than first phalanx of middle toe (except in 0. mystacea, in which it 

 is longer than first and second phalanges combined), the culmen and 

 gonys slightly to moderately convex or arched ; tomial notch indistinct 

 or obsolete. Frontal antia extremely variable; in 0. caniceps, 0. mon- 

 tana, 0. martinica, and all the continental species except 0. veraguen^is 

 and 0. violacea, forming a single acute angle on middle line of the meso- 

 rhinium, the apex of which is much anterior to the malar antia (in 0. 

 montana and 0. martinica extending as far as or slightly beyond the 

 mental antia); m 0. chrysia, 0. mystacea, a.nd 0. violacea, forming 

 a short obtuse point on each side of the mesorhinium and but very 

 little in advance of the malar antia, 0. veraguensis being similar but 

 with the frontal antia broader, more rounded, and with the median 

 indentation less distinct or hardly obvious. Wing moderately to 

 rather strongly concave beneath, much rounded, the longest pri- 

 maries exceeding distal secondaries by a little more than one-third 

 to less than one-fifth the length of wing; third to fifth, or second to 

 fifth, primaries (from outside) longest, the first (outermost) shorter 

 than fifth, sometimes shorter than sixth or even shorter than sev- 

 enth; outermost primary moderately broad, more or less strongly 

 bowed, not attenuated terminally, but with inner web more or less 

 distinctly incised near middle portion (except in 0. albifacies and 

 other large continental species, in which the cutting away of the 

 margin is indistinct or obsolete). Tail about three-fifths as long as 

 whig, more or less distinctly rounded, the rectrices twelve in number. 



