304 Allex, Columbina vs. Choemepelia. [jiliv 



basis of mimita Linn.) indicates a bird with an unspotted breast, 

 and gives other characters that absolutely exclude its reference to 

 pasfierina. At the same time he placed griseoJa of Spix, a l)ird with 

 a spotted breast, as shown by both Spix's figure and his diagnosis 

 ('plumis capitis pectorisque squamosis"), with his oami griseola, 

 (described as "subtus roseo-vinacea, pectore puro") in the section 

 "pectore immaculato"! 



Now as to the summing up of the matter. The range of Cohimha 

 passerina Linn., 1758, as originally given, included all of the warmer 

 parts of America, and "Picuipinima, INIarcgr. bras. 204," was one 

 of the original references. Salvadori, in 1893 (/. c, 477), gave the 

 range as "South Atlantic and Gulf States, Texas, New Mexico, 

 Arizona, and California, south to the West Indies, and through 

 Central America to South America, as far as Peru and Paraguay." 

 He recognized no subspecies of it, nor any closely allied forms, and 

 after stating that he had examined a large amount of material from 

 a great number of localities (he lists nearly 200 specimens as being 

 contained in the British INIuseum, and refers to t}^3es of alleged 

 species and other material examined elsewhere), he says: "....I 

 have arrived at the conclusion that there is only one species," which, 

 he goes on to say, varies more or less according to different conditions 

 of environment. Without having seen the type of griseola Spix, he 

 placed this name under mhnda, evidently following previous authors 

 without careful verification of the case. 



This digression is to show that the status of griseola was that of a 

 synonym of passerina till the passerina group began to be recognized 

 as an aggregation of subspecies, of which griseola is one. It was not 

 till Bonaparte redescribed griseola in 1854 that the name figured to 

 any extent in ornithological literature. Subsequently it was used as 

 a sul)stitute name for minuta Linn., and was generally incorrectly 

 ascribed to Spix, as was done by Gray in 1856, in his Catalogue of 

 Pigeons (Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., pt. IV, 185G, 50), where he adopted 

 Bonaparte's genera of 1854 and his wrong determiration of Cohnnhina 

 griseola Spix. 



We return now to the cjuestion. What shall we do with Cohnnhina ? 

 To recapitulate : Gray in 1840 recogfiuzed it as a genus, with Columba 

 passerina Linn, as the type, and Channepelia Swains, as a sMionym 

 of it. While C. passerina was not one of the origmally included 



