342 CHARADRIIFORMES 



Islands. The African T. scncgalcnsis is found in the Canaries, and 

 several introduced species occur in Madagascar or Mauritius. 



Group {g). — The seventh section of the Peristerinae is character- 

 ized by metallic spots near the ear-coverts and an iridescent gloss 

 on the sides of the neck. Afelopelia lemoptera, found from Texas 

 to Costa Kica and the West Indies, and the very similar M. 

 meloda of Peru and Chili, have a white wing-patch. One of the 

 notes resembles a cock's crow. Nesopelia, of the Galapagos, links 

 these closely to Zenaida, with six members, found from the Florida 

 Keys, Yucatan, and the Antilles, through South America to Pata- 

 gonia. Z. ayiuihilis, the Pea- or Mountain-Dove of the islands 

 from the Florida Keys to Antigua, is reddish-olive, with vinous 

 head and breast, two peacock- blue ear-spots, black blotches on 

 the scapulars and wing-coverts, black remiges, and a white band 

 across the secondaries. Chiefly terrestrial, it roosts and nests 

 either on trees or on the ground, the flight being swift, and the 

 note very soft. Zenaidura carolimmsis, the Mourning-Dove of 

 North America, including Southern Canada, is not unlike the 

 above, but has the crown, sides of the body, and edges of the 

 wings blue, and in the male the breast purplish. Small flocks 

 often frequent the neighbourhood of houses, while the flight is 

 strong, the note guttui'al and melancholy, the food of grain, 

 berries, acorns, shoots of plants, and apparently worms. The 

 nest is placed indifferently on the earth or aloft. 



Sub-fam. 3. Coluvibinae. — Ectopistes migratorius, the well- 

 known Passenger-Pigeon, breeds in eastern North America, chiefly 

 in Canada and the adjoining United States, and wanders to the 

 Pacific and Cuba. Its immense colonies are seemingly a thing 

 of the past, though as lately as 1888 a northward flight crossed 

 Michigan, where in 1878, at Petosky, the "roost," or area 

 occupied, is said to have been twenty-eight miles long by three 

 or four broad. The trees were often laden with nests, and 

 during a stay of five weeks several millions of birds are stated 

 to have been captured, chiefly by means of nets and decoys ; 

 though earlier authors, such as Wilson, mention many different 

 methods of slaughter. The parents were very noisy, and covered 

 vast distances in search of food ; but, save for the sharp call-note, 

 and the single egg, the other habits were as in most arboreal Pigeons. 



Coryphoenas crassirostris, of the Solomon Islands, a slate- 

 coloured species with brownish head and crest, resembles in its 



