Typical Pigeons. 147 



Vinaceous Pigeon (Columba plumbea). 



According to Salvadori the female is duller than the male and less 

 vinous underneath, often with reddish spots on the nape. 



Narrow-barred Pigeon (Macropygia leptogrammica). 



The female is smaller and duller than the male ; she is much less 

 distinctly barred above ; below buffish without the lilacine wash on 

 the breast; flanks rust-red ; both breast and sides heavily barred 

 with dark brown. 



Pheasant-tailed Pigeon {Macropygia phasianella). 



Count Salvadori says : " Whether the adult female is similar to the 

 adult male, or resembles the young bird, is still doubtful." And yet 

 there is a female from Port Molle which this author records as an 

 adult skin, and which undoubtedly resembles the young bird. I 

 therefore append the Count's description of the latter : " Upper 

 parts chestnut-brown, upper part of the head much redder chestnut, 

 and also the edges of the upper wing-coverts ; the sides of the head 

 and neck rufous with brown bars ; beneath minutely freckled with 

 dark brown." 



Emilian Pigeon [Macropygia emiliana). 



In the female the mantle is crossed by dusky-bordered cinnamon 

 bars ; her throat is paler than in the male, her breast broader, with 

 dusky margins to the feathers in front. 



Passenger Pigeon {Ectopistes migratorius). 



Count Salvadori thus distinguishes the female : " Head, hind 

 neck, back, scapulars, and smaller wing-coverts pale brown ; rump 

 and upper tail-coverts grey ; sides of the neck glittering with 

 amethystine-purple; throat reddish- white ; lower fore-part of the 

 neck and breast pale brown, paler than above, and fading into 

 white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; median and greater 

 wing-coverts, brownish-grey; the median wing- coverts, the scapulars, 

 and the tertials with black spots, more numerous than in the male ; 

 quills brown, the inner primaries dull greyish at the base of the 

 inner web ; tail as in the male, but the central feathers have a 

 brown grey tinge" [Catalogue of Birds, vol. xxi. p. 371). "With 

 regard to the more numerous spots on the wing-coverts, scapulars, 

 and tertials, Charles Otis Whitman observes: "In birds taken at 

 random, I count in the left wing and scapulars 90 checkers in a 

 juvenal, 51 in an adult female, and 25 in an adult male" ("The 

 Problem of the Origin of Species," in Congress of Arts and Science, 

 Universal Exposition, St Louis, 1904, vol. v.). 



