BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 309 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF PATAGICEN^AS. 



a. Hindneck metallic (green, bronze, or purplish.), the featJiera sharply margined with, 

 black or dark chestnut. (Adults.) 

 b. Pileum white or smoky gray; hindneck metallic green or bronze, squamated 

 with black; sides of head, chin, throat, and foreneck slate color or slate-gray. 

 (Florida Keys, West Indies, and coast of Yucatan and British Honduras.) 



Patagicenas leucocephala, adults (p. 309). 

 66. Pileum purple-drab to ^dnaceous-slate ; lundneck metallic purplish, squa- 

 mated with dark chestnut; sides of head, chin, throat, and foreneck purple- 

 drab. (West Indies, except Bahamas and Jamaica; accidental on Florida 



Keys.) Patagicenas squamosa, adults (p. 312). 



aa. Hindneck neither metallic nor squamated. ( Young.) 

 b. Forehead pale gray or dull whitish; neck and chest grayish brown. 



Patagioenas leucocephala, young (p. 310). 



66. Forehead dark brownish gray or dull purplish brown, concolor with rest of 



pilexim; neck and chest rusty brown. .Patagicenas squamosa, young (p. 314). 



PATAGKENAS LEUCOCEPHALA (Linnaeus). 



WHITE-HEADED PIGEON. 



Adult male. — Pileum immaculate white (sometimes drab or 

 smoky) ;<^ nape dark maroon or warm blackish brown; hindneck 

 metallic bronze-green or bronze (rarely purplish bronze) , the feathers 

 margined with black, producing a squamate effect; rest of upper 

 parts plain slate color, somewhat lighter (approaching slate-gray) 

 on rump and upper tail-coverts, duller (slightly more brownish) 

 on inner secondaries and apical portion of primaries; under parts 

 (including malar, suborbital and auricular regions, chin, throat, 

 axillars, and under wing-coverts) slate color, darker anteriorly, 

 passing into slate-gray posteriorly; tip of bill greenish white, horn 

 white, or pearly green, basal portion dull crimson lake, dull crimson, 

 or brownish purple;'' iris white or creamy white;* bare orbital 

 space white and pinkish;* legs and feet bright crimson, claws 

 brown;* length (skms), 291-397 (340); wing, 181-204 (190.4); 

 tail, 113-145 (126.4); cuhnen, 15-20 (16.9); tarsus, 23.5-28 (25.8); 

 middle toe, 28-33 (30.4). ^ 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male, but lighter and somewhat 

 duller m coloration, the slate color of back, scapulars and proximal 

 wing-coverts and secondaries more brownish, under parts of body 

 decidedly lighter (sometimes approaching pale purplish gray or 

 pale neutral gray), and pileum more frequently brownish gray or 

 smoky (rarely white ?) ; length (skins), 290-386 (330); whig, 171.5- 



a It is difficult to account for this variation in the color of the pileum, since it 

 occiu-s in adult birds of both sexes, though perhaps more frequently in females. Pos- 

 sibly it may be an adventitious stain. 



b Lowe, Ibis, 1909, 332. 



c Fifty-five specimens. 



