556 CAROLINA DOVE. 



during winter, and is shot in great numbers by sportsmen, who hide 

 themselves under low huts at the foot of moderately tall trees, such 

 as persimons, while their servants drive the Doves from the adjacent 

 fields. In this manner more than a hundred have been shot by one 

 man in the course of a morning. When snow is on the ground, won- 

 derful havoc is committed among them, and he has heard of a party 

 of sportsmen having shot about five hundred in one day. 



The egg of the Carolina Dove measures one inch one-eighth in 

 length, by five and a half eighths in breadth, is equally rounded at 

 both ends, and is of a pure white colour, somewhat translucent. 



A male preserved in spirits measures to end of tail 12 inches, to 

 end of wuigs 8i§ ; wing from flexure 6xV : tail 5{^ ; extent of wings 

 17|. 



The tongue is 7^ twelfths long, sagittate and papillate at the base, 

 rapidly contracted, and tapering to a point. The width of the mouth 

 is 3^ twelfths, but the lower mandible may be dilated to 8 twelfths. 

 The oesophagus is 4 inches long, about 8 twelfths in width for 1^ inch, 

 then enlarges into a crop of the same form and structure as in the pre- 

 ceding species, and 1 inch 9 twelfths in breadth. The stomach is a 

 transversely oblong gizzard, 9 twelfths in length, 1^ inch in breadth ; 

 the left muscle 4 twelfths, the right 4J twelfths in thickness ; the epi- 

 thelium very thick and of a horny texture ; the grinding surfaces con- 

 cave. The contents of the stomach are buck-wheat, and grains of 

 quartz. The intestine is 23| inches long, from 3 to 2 twelfths in 

 width ; the coeca 2 twelfths long, i twelfth in breadth ; the cloaca glo- 

 bular, and about 8 twelfths in diameter. 



The trachea is 3 inches 2 twelfths long, 1 twelfth in breadth, con- 

 siderably flattened ; the rings 90, cartilaginous behind ; the last ring 

 as in the preceding species. Bronchi moderate, of about 15 half rings. 

 The muscles are as in the Passenger Pigeon. 



