6 COLUMBID^. 



65° N. lat., and has even straggled up to 6G° 10' N. : in the 

 central portion it is generally resident, but in the southern 

 countries bordering the Mediterranean it is more especially 

 abundant on migration, although it breeds in some numbers 

 down to Morocco, and also in Algeria. Its western limit 

 is the group of the Azores, where according to Mr. Godman 

 it appears to be confined to the central and eastern islands. 

 To the eastward its range cannot be traced with certainty 

 much beyond the Ural, in the north, or beyond the Tigris in 

 the south : in Asia Minor, Palestine, and as far as Bagdad 

 this species is certainly abundant, but in Turkestan, and to 

 the east of the line of the Persian Gulf, it appears to be 

 replaced by an allied species, C. casiotis (Bp.), with neck- 

 patches of a buff colour instead of pure white. 



In the adult male the bill is yellow towards the tip and 

 orange-red at the base ; the soft parts about the nostrils 

 almost white ; irides straw-yellow ; head and upper part of 

 the neck bluish-grey, the feathers on the sides of the neck 

 glossed with violet and purple, the lower ones being tipped 

 with white, forming parts of four or five oblique rings ; back, 

 scapulars, both sets of wing-coverts and tertials a shade 

 darker, and browner than the head; the first four or five 

 feathers of both sets of wing-coverts white, or partially 

 white, which, when the wing is closed, produces only a white 

 line down the edge of the wing, but when they are spread 

 open these feathers then form a conspicuous white patch, 

 which is visible at a great distance ; the primary quill- 

 feathers are lead-grey with narrow white margins and black 

 shafts ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts bluish- 

 grey ; tail-feathers twelve ; the pair in the centre of two 

 colours, the basal two-thirds bluish-grey, the ends dark lead- 

 grey ; the other ten feathers of three shades of grey, the 

 middle part being the lightest in colour; chin bluish-grey; 

 neck and breast vinous-purple ; belly, vent, and under tail- 

 coverts ash-grey ; under surface of tail-feathers pearl-grey in 

 the middle, lead-grey at both ends ; tarsi and feet red, claws 

 brown. 



The whole length is seventeen inches. From the carpal 



