NOVITATES ZOOLOGIOAE XXIII. 1916. 87 



Jacq., and in a footnote is said : " We prefer to follow Count Salvador's suggestion, 

 as we consider that the bare space round the eye, mentioned by Jacquin, is a 

 sufficient character to identify the species." 



This deduction, in my opinion, is incorrect. Jaequin's diagnosis (Beytrcige zur 

 Geschichte der Vögel, 1784, p. 31) is as follows : " Columba (corensis) canda aequali, 

 orbitis denudatis atro-pnnctatis, corpore grisea." To this is added the following 

 description : 



" Bey Koro, in dem Gebiethe von Venezuela, wohnt eine schöne Taube, welche 

 an Grösse der gemeinen Hanstaube gleichkömmt. Sie ist durchaus schöngran, 

 und die hinteren Federn des Halses sind sehr schön schuppenähnlich, und obschon 

 sie mit den übrigen gleichfarbig sind, so spielen sie doch verschiedentlich. Die 

 rothen Augen stehen in einem kahlen mit schwarzen Pnncten besetzten Flecken. 

 Die Füsse sind roth. Die Indianer nehmen die Jungen aus dem Neste, erziehen 

 und essen sie." 



This description, taken from manuscript notes made by Jacquin's father during 

 his sojourn in Venezuela, reads, translated into English, as follows: 



" Near Koro, in the country of Venezuela, lives a fine Pigeon, which agrees iu 

 size with the common domestic Pigeon. It is throughout of a beautiful grey colour, 

 and the feathers of the hind-neck are very beautifully scale-like, and, though of 

 same colour as the rest, they appear different in different lights. The red eyes 

 stand in a bare space which is beset with black dots. The feet are red. The 

 Indians take the young from their nests, rear them, and eat them." 



Can this description be adopted for the species in question ? In my opinion 

 certainly not. It is certainly not " throughout of a beautiful grey colour," as the 

 upper back and scapulars as well as the lesser and median upper wing-coverts are 

 greyish brown, the head and most of the underside are vinous, a wide stripe along 

 the wing and the under tail-coverts white, and one could only call the lower back and 

 rump and the flanks " beautifully grey." The white alar stripe is so conspicuous 

 that the inhabitants of Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire call this Pigeon the "Alablanco," 

 i.e. the " White-wing." Moreover the naked space around the eyes is not exactly 

 dotted with black. Even the feathers of the hind-neck are not really of the same 

 colour as the rest, but the upper ones have bluish white, the hinder ones pink 

 edges, bordered with a narrow black line, and they are not iridescent. There is 

 therefore hardly anything in the description which agrees well with the bird — the 

 colours of which are very well shown in Mr. Grön void's plate — except that it has 

 a bare space round the eye, and that the tail is equal — though I would rather call 

 it slightly rounded. 



And last but not least comes another point : the " habitat " ! I cannot under- 

 stand why the authors of the List say that it is " Venezuela," and nothing else. 

 The fact is that it has never yet been found in Venezuela — at least there is no 

 proof of it. For about eighty years it was only known from single specimens 

 in four or five museums, which probably all came over alive from Curacao — like 

 Amazona ochroptera — and was haphazardly, without any proper reason, supposed 

 to come from the " interior of Brazil," until, in 1892, I discovered its habitat — the 

 islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire. Mr. Ernst Peters (see Joum. f. Orn. 

 1892, p. 112) said that this same Pigeon, of which he had shot two specimens, 

 which, however, were not skinned, but taken by a cat, occurs in Venezuela, where 

 it is called " manglera." This statement was evidently made from hearsay, and 

 not from personal observation, and even in the latter case it would have been with- 



