PICtEOXS ax I) DOVES 



49 



Photograph by C. M, Oswalt 



Courtesy of OutiriK Pubhshing Co. 



NEST AND EGGS OF MOURNING DOVE 

 The nest is an astonishingly poor makeshift, composed chiefly of a handful of twigs loosely thrown together 



WHITE-WINGED DOVE 

 Melopelia asiatica ( Linncciis) 



A. O. U. Number 319 



Other Name. — Singing Dove. 



General Description. — Length, 12 inches. Prevail- 

 ins color above, gray ; below, brown on breast and 

 gray on abdomen. Tail shorter than wing, moderately 

 rounded, consisting of 12 feathers, these broader termin- 

 ally : wing rather large and pointed. 



Color. — Head, fawn color, paler in front and pass- 

 ing into a much darker hue (sometimes approaching 

 dark purple-drab) on crown and back of head; hind- 

 neck, similar in color to back of head but somewhat 

 lighter; back, shoulders, and wing-coverts, plain deep 

 huffy-brown, light sepia, or umber; the middle pair of 

 tail-feathers (sometimes longer upper tail-coverts also) 

 similar, sometimes more decidedly brown ; outer wing- 

 coverts, mostly white forming a coit.<:f>ieuoi<s elonr/ated 

 patch from bend of ii'ing to extremity of greater 

 coverts, the latter with basal portion gray, as are also 

 the coverts along inner margin of the white area ; prima- 

 ries, primary coverts, and outer secondaries, dull black, 

 the outer webs of secondaries, broadly edged with white 

 at the tips, the primaries very narrowly edged with 

 white (except basally) and margined terminally with 

 light or pale brownish-gray ; rump, light slate-gray or 

 dark gull-gray, usually tinged with buffy-brown ; the 

 upper tail-coverts, either wholly brown or mixed brown 



and gray; tail-feathers (except middle pair), slate-gray 

 very broadly tipped with very pale gray to grayish- 

 white, and crossed by a band of slate-black or blackish- 

 slate between the paler and darker areas ; a spot below 

 the eye of blue-black or black glossed with steel-blue; 

 sides of neck, glossed with metallic reddish-bronze to 

 greenish-bronze; sides of head and neck, throat, fore- 

 neck, chest, and upper breast (sometimes whole breast), 

 wood-brown, paler (sometimes dull whitish) on chin 

 and upper throat, passing into pale gray on posterior 

 under parts, including under tail-coverts ; the anal 

 region, white ; sides and flanks and under wing-coverts, 

 deeper gray; under surface of tail, slate-black broad- 

 ly tipped with white or grayish-white ; bill, black : 

 iris, orange to orange-red or coral-red ; bare eye-space, 

 pale grayish-blue to campanula-blue ; legs and feet, 

 lake-red. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : In bushes or low trees ; a 

 slight frail structure of sticks and weeds. Eggs: 2, 

 creamy-white. 



Distribution. — Eastern Cuba ; southern Bahamas ; 

 Haiti ; Jamaica ; Old Providence Island ; and lower Rio 

 Grande valley in Texas; southward through Mexico, 

 Central America, and Panama(?) Occasional in south- 

 ern Florida, Louisiana, and south-central Texas. 



