408 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



less masters of bird drawing, Catesby and Edwards; but as I have 

 had occasion to notice with regard to the description proper and 

 especially as regards the living habits of these pigeons various things 

 winch these gentlemen have either left entirely unmentioned, or 

 which at their places of residence they have not been able properly 

 to ascertain, it is my desire to deliver a short account of this subject 

 before the Royal Academy of Sciences, using the notes from my 

 American diary. 



Although these pigeons have been splendidly illustrated by ornith- 

 ologists, they have not been able to reproduce their beautiful colors 

 in true accordance with nature, in one respect, at least; the color 

 indicated on either side of the neck should extend much higher up. 

 [Technical descriptions follow in Latin and are here omitted.] 



The size of these pigeons is about that of a ringdove. 



Their long tail distinguishes them from other pigeons. 



The splendid color winch the male and the female have on the 

 sides of the neck and even a little beyond it is also peculiar in that 

 the feathers in that region are as if covered with a finely resplendent 

 copper [color], with a purple tint, which back of the neck shifts 

 more into green, particularly with reference to its position toward 

 the light. Rarely is this color more finely reproduced than in this 

 bird. Mr. Catesby calls it a golden color, but it can hardly be 

 termed that. 



In the copy of Mr. Catesby's work which I have seen both the 

 head and the back are of a darker color, and the breast is also of 

 a redder color than the bird actually has. This I could very well 

 see when I laid a recently killed male beside Mr. Catesby's figure, 

 as it is the male winch is reproduced in his work. Mr. Edward 

 [sic] has entirely omitted the above-mentioned copper color both 

 in his description and his figure. It may be that some of the young 

 ones do not have it; but it was found on all those which I have 

 handled, and which were killed in the spring. 1 



Quite a number of these pigeons may be seen every summer in 

 the woods of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and the adjoining prov- 

 inces, in which region they live and nest; and it is very seldom 

 that a greater number of them are not observed there in the spring, 

 during the months of February and March, than in the other seasons 

 of the year. But there are certain years when they come to Penn- 

 sylvania and the southern English provinces in such indescribable 

 multitudes as literally to appall the people. I did not, however, 

 have the opportunity of witnessing such personally (although the 

 spring of the year 1749, when I was there, was considered as one of 

 those in which a greater number of these pigeons appeared than had 



i Edwards's figure represents a distinct.species of another genus, namely, the Columba (,=>Zenaidura) 

 macroura. 



