712 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — COL UMBM — PERISTERjE. 



behind ami fading into white on lower belly and crissum. Tibise, sides of body, and lining 

 of wings like upper parts. Quills blackish, with rufous-white edging. Two middle tail-feath- 

 ers blackish ; others fading from pearly-bluish into white, their extreme bases with black and 

 chestnut spots. Bill black; feet lake red, drying an undefinable color; iris orange; skin about 

 eye red. Length about 17.00, but very variable, according to development of tail ; extent 

 23.00-25.00; wing 8.00-8.50; tail about the same, the lateral feathers graduated rather more 

 than half its length; bill 0.75; tarsus 1.00; middle toe and claw, 1.25. Adult 9- Upper 

 parts, wings, and tail, as in $; below, brownish-gray, fading posteriorly. Young: Like 9» 

 but still duller ; little or no clear slaty except on rump ; plumage varied with white crescentic 

 edges of the feathers, especially on back and wings ; quills edged about with rufous; most of 

 the lateral tail-feathers gray. " Wanders continually in search of food throughout all parts of 

 North America ; wonderfully abundant at times in particular districts ; " chiefly, however, 

 woodland of North America, E. of the Rocky Mountains, casually only W. of them. We do not 

 now have the millions that the earlier writers speak of in the Eastern United States ; and no 

 contract for service has for many years included a clause that the hireling should not be fed too 

 often on wild Pigeons or salmon ; but I remember one great flight over Washington, D. C, 

 when I was a boy, about 1858, and I witnessed in 1873 another, of countless thousands, on 

 the Red River of the North ; the greatest roosts and flights we now (1897) hear of are in the 

 upper Mississippi Valley, though some of the birds may still breed in various wooded places 

 all along our northern border and northward to Hudson's Bay. The Wild Pigeon seems now 

 a passenger to happier hunting-grounds than it or the Indian has ever found in this country, 

 in the wake of the bison and the fur seal ; it has been often subjected to merciless and almost 

 wanton destruction by hundreds of thousands at a single roost in a single season ; and if it is 

 not entirely exterminated soon, it will be only because there are too few left to pay for perse- 

 cution. Nest in trees and bushes, usually a slight frail platform of twigs, so open as to leave 

 the egg visible from below. Eggs 1 or 2, equal-ended, 1.45 X 1-05. 



Subfamily ZENAIDIN>E: Ground Doves. 



Feet larger than in Columbince. Tarsus lengthened to exceed lateral toes, entirely naked 

 and scutellate in front (scarcely feathered in Scarda fella) . Tail-feathers normally 12, rarely 

 14 or more (Zenaiclura the only North American Pigeon with more than 12). Seven North 

 American genera, each (excepting Geotrygon) of a single species in this country. (The name 

 of the subfamily may preferably be changed to Peristerince, for the reason that the generic 

 name Perisiera antedates Zenaida.) 



Analysis of Genera. 



Tail of 14 feathers, long and wedge-shaped Zenaidura 



Tail of 12 feathers. 



Outer primary attenuate, bistoury-like Engyptila 



Outer primary normal. 



Tail longer than wing, double-rounded Scardafella 



Tail about equal to wing. Tar.sus not shorter than middle toe and claw Geotrygon 



Tail shorter than wing Tarsus shorter than middle toe and claw. 



No blue-black spot nor metallic lustre on head or neck Coluiuhignllina 



A blue-black spot and metallic lustre on head or neck. 



Black spots and no white patch on wing Zenaida 



White patch and no black spots on wing Melopelia 



ENGYP'TILA. (Gr. iyyvs, efjfjus, narrow, straitened ; tttiXoi/, 2)tilo)i, feather ; alluding to the 

 outer primary.) PiN-wiNG DoVES. First primary abruptly emarginate, attenuate and linear 

 near tlie end. Wings of moderate length ; 3d and 4th primaries longest ; 1st shorter than 7th. 

 Tail much shorter than wings, rounded, of 12 broad feathers. Tarsus entirely naked, equalling 



