XVIII. A REVISION OF THE GENUS CM EMEPELIA. 



By YV. E. Clyde Todd. 



Introduction. 



The present paper is the outgrowth of an attempt to identify the 

 series of Ground Doves in the collection of the Carnegie Museum, a 

 series which, although small, seemed to indicate the existence of 

 several apparently undescribed forms. The confusion in which the 

 various members of this genus were found to be involved, however, 

 appeared to be such as to forbid satisfactory conclusions being reached 

 until a thorough revision of the entire group could be made, and this 

 task was accordingly undertaken. Through the cordial cooperation 

 of the authorities of the larger museums in this country, and through 

 the courtesy of several owners of private collections, the writer has 

 been able to bring together no less than nineteen hundred and twenty 

 specimens of this genus, representing all of the known forms, and 

 including a number of types. Although in the nature of the case a 

 considerable percentage of this material is not of the best quality, 

 Ground Doves being especially difficult to make up into good skins, 

 and although certain geographical areas (particularly in South 

 America) are sparsely represented by specimens, it has been possible 

 for the first time to work out to advantage the characters, relation- 

 ships, and ranges of the various forms. The results of this study 

 are embodied in the present revision, which has considerably exceeded 

 the scope originally planned, and is now presented as an effort to 

 correlate our knowledge of this group of birds into one harmonious 

 whole. 



Accordingly, there has been an attempt to make the list of refer- 

 ences to the literature of the group as complete as possible. While 

 time and effort have not been spared in this endeavor, it is of course 

 too much to hope that absolute completeness has been attained, but 

 it is believed that over ninety per cent of the references have been 

 duly recorded. Although it is true that many of those here given are 

 of no especial scientific importance, it is also true that such a thorough 



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