232 COLUMBID.E. 



some winters in considerable numbers in the Bay of Gibraltar, 

 generally during December and January. 



Male. Head and neck glossy metallic black ; crest of narrow elongated 

 black feathers ; white collar on neck, showing much when flying ; rump 

 white, with wavy black lines ; tail uniform brown ; bill vermilion ; legs 

 orange ; iris red. 



Female and young. Like those of preceding species, but much smaller, 

 and head darker, black bar across wing-spot. Length 22-24 inches. 



255. Mergus albellus, Linnaeus. The Smew. 

 The Smew occurs in some winters about the Straits in imma- 

 ture plumage. 



Bill shorter than head. 



Male. Black, grey, and white. Head and neck white ; black stripe 

 through eye to nape; slightly crested ; ramp ash-grey. 



Female. Head and nape chestnut, crested ; above slate-grey ; black patch 

 from bill to eye ; rump greyish black. 



Young male. Like female, but has no black patch between eye and bill. 

 Length 14-17 inches. 



Order COLTJMB^. Family COLUMBIA. 



256. Columba palumbus, Linnaeus. The Ring-Dove or Wood- 

 Pigeon. 



Moorish. Kamor. Spanish. Paloma torcaz. 



"This Pigeon is found near Tangier throughout the year. 

 Some are migratory, crossing to Europe in March and April." 

 Favier. 



In some localities in Morocco the Wood-Pigeon positively 

 swarms. In April, up a valley near the Fondak, to the south- 

 west of that place, on the road between Tangier and Tetuan, it 

 would have been easy to shoot a hundred in a day, they were in 

 such numbers and so excessively tame. Two or three, which we 

 shot to eat, had their crops full of the tuberous root of some 

 weed which had been ploughed up and was lying in quantities 

 about the fallow fields. During the same month, about three 



