MELOPELIA. — SCAEDAPELLA. 247 



western Texas, though somewhat local in parts of its range. It is common throughout 

 Central Mexico and abundant in the southern part of the Valley of Mexico. Grayson 

 observed it breeding in Tehuantepec, but we have no further information respecting 

 the nidification of the species in Central America. Near La Parada, in Oaxaca, 

 Boucard noticed it at an elevation of 10,000 feet, and specimens have also been 

 recorded from the Tres Marias Islands. In Yucatan, numbers of these Doves may be 

 found both in the morning and evening in the cornfields, or feeding on the seeds of 

 certain leguminous trees ; during the day they frequent the banks of the cenotes (water- 

 holes), which they doubtless visit for shade as well as water. 



We found M. leucoptera common in the open savannas about Daenas in April and 

 May. Taylor ^ noted it as abundant in the vicinity of houses and cornfields, on the 

 Pacific coast of Honduras and in the environs of Comayagua. In Costa Eica this bird 

 is plentiful in the clearings and open woods in the dry season, but disappears during 

 the rains, and in Nicaragua it is found in similar localities. 



The flight is accompanied with a whistling sound, louder than that produced by 

 Zenaidura carolinensis. The mournful call-note resembles that of a young cockerel, 

 and it has variations of the cooing characteristic of Pigeons. The nest consists of a 

 frail structure of twigs lined with weeds, " mesquite " leaves, and dry grasses, and is 

 usually placed in cactus-plants or trees at a height varying from two to thirty feet. 

 The breeding-season continues from the middle of May to the middle of July, being 

 more prolonged in some localities than in others. The eggs are two in number, of a 

 rich creamy tint, which soon fades to a dead white ^^. 



Subfam. GHOPELIINM 

 The members of this subfamily can be distinguished from the Zenaidinse by the 

 absence of a metallic spot on the sides of the neck or wings. The wings are rounded, 

 and the primaries scarcely exceed the secondaries in length. Three genera of 

 Geopeliinse are known, viz., Qeopelia of Eastern Asia and Australia, Scardafella 

 of North, Central, and South America, and Gymnopelia of Peru and Chile. 



SCAEDAFELLA. 



Scardafella, Bp. Consp. Av. ii. p. 85 (1854); Salvad. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxi. p. 463 (1893). 



In the Old-World genus Geopelia the tail-feathers are fourteen in number, while in 

 Scardafella and Qymnopelia there are but twelve. In Geopelia the first primary is 

 attenuated at the tip, but in the two American genera this is not the case, and 

 Scardafella has not the conspicuous bare space round the eye which distinguishes 

 Gymnopelia. The tail in Scardafella is quite as long as, or longer than, the wings, 

 and the lateral feathers are graduated and narrowed at the tips, whereas in ChamcBpelia 

 the tail is shorter than the wing and the feathers are broad at the tips. 



