FAMILY COLUMBIDAE 33 



CLARAVIS PRETIOSA (Ferrari-Perez): Blue Ground-Dove; 

 Tortolita Azul 



Figure 5 



Peristera pretiosa Ferrari-Perez, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 9, October 2, 1886, 

 p. 175. (New name for Columba cinerea Temminck, 1811, preoccupied; type 

 locality Brazil.) 



A ground-dove of medium size ; male gray with dark spots on 

 wings ; females olive-brown, with bright brown spots on wings, and 

 light brown tail. 



Description. — Length 185-210 mm. Male, bluish gray, with fore- 

 head and throat light grayish white, back and wings darker; wing 

 coverts and inner secondaries with a variable number of dark spots ; 

 primaries and secondaries black. 



Female, above light olive-brown to cinnamon-brown, changing to 

 russet on upper tail coverts and middle tail feathers ; wings spotted in 

 variable amount with chestnut; forehead and side of head brownish 

 gray ; throat white ; forepart of body tawny olive, changing posteriorly 

 on lower breast and sides to pale gray ; center of abdomen white ; under 

 tail coverts russet, more or less mixed with gray ; under wing coverts 

 gray ; wings and tail dull black. 



Immature, like female, but scapulars and wing coverts tipped with 

 cinnamon ; feathers of foreneck and breast with paler margins ; wing 

 spots reduced or lacking. 



An adult male taken at the Peluca Hydrographic Station, February 

 17, 1961, had the iris dark orange; bare skin around eye gray (like 

 the gray of the feathers on the center of the crown) ; line on culmen 

 fuscous ; rest of maxilla and anterior half of mandible dull Marguerite 

 yellow ; cere and mandibular rami pale greenish gray ; bare skin be- 

 tween rami (posterior to gonys) neutral gray; tarsus and toes dull 

 rosy white ; claws dusky neutral gray. Another adult male, taken at 

 Guanico Arriba, January 25, 1962, had the iris dark orange-red; bare 

 skin around eye light greenish gray; cere light brownish gray; an- 

 terior third of culmen line dark mouse brown ; rest of bill dull buffy 

 white ; tarsus and toes pale pink ; claws black. 



A female shot at the Peluca Station, February 26, 1961, had the 

 iris reddish orange ; bare skin around eye neutral gray ; line of culmen 

 fuscous as in male ; cere dull neutral gray ; side of maxilla and man- 

 dible light yellowish brown ; bare skin between mandibular rami 

 greenish neutral gray; tarsus and toes as in male. Another female, 

 from Puerto Armuelles, Chiriqui, January 30, 1966, had the claws 

 black. 



