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WHITE-HEADED PIGEON. 



COLUMBA LEVCOCEPHALA, LiNN. 

 PLATE CLXXVII. Vol. II. p. 443. 



The White-headed Pigeon does not occur to the westward of the 

 Florida Keys on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico ; at least I have seen 

 none in any portion of all that extensive range of country as far as Gal- 

 veston Island in Texas. The eggs of this species measures one inch 

 and two and a half eighths in length, an inch and half an eighth in 

 breadth ; although in more than fifty instances I found two eggs in each 

 nest, the Earl of Derby informs me that in captivity, like Columba mi- 

 gratoria, this Pigeon lays only one. 



In a specimen preserved in spirits, the interior of the mouth is si- 

 milar to that of the Passenger Pigeon ; as is the tongue, which is 



8 twelfths long, but broader towards the end than in that species. The 

 oesophagus is 5 inches 9 twelfths long ; its width at the upper part 

 nearly 1 inch ; the crop of the same form and structm-e as in the species 

 above named, and nearly of the same size. The stomach is \\ inch in 

 breadth, 1^ inch in length ; its muscles very strong, the left 6 twelfths, 

 the right 7 twelfths thick ; the epithelium of a horny texture, with two 

 concave grinding surfaces. It contains seeds of fruits. The intestine 

 is 28 inches long : the duodenum is 6 twelfths in breadth ; the average 

 width of the rest of the intestine is 3 twelfths. The cceca are 2\ twelfths 

 long, i twelfth in width ; the cloaca very little dilated, its width about 



9 twelfths. 



The trachea is, A\ inches long, from 3 twelfths to 2\ twelfths in 

 breadth ; the rings extremely feeble, unossified on the back part, and 

 90 in number ; the last ring of the same form as in the other species, 

 and the muscles are similar. Bronchi moderate, of about 15 half rings. 



The brain in these Pigeons is proportionally much smaller than in 

 any other bird examined, excepting the Goat-suckers and Cuckoos. 



