200 BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 



the most interesting portion of a young bird, as it usually appears ic 

 November of the first year; and though the sexes are then alike in 

 plumage, we had the figure taken from a young male, in order to com- 

 plete the iconography of that sex. 



Vieillot's figure represents the young before the first moult, when, like 

 our anomalous specimen, they have no red on the crown ; differing, 

 however, in not having the head of a glossy black, but of a dull 

 yellowish-gray, and the patch on the breast also of a dull gray tint. 



COLVMBA FA80IATA. 



BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 



[Plate VIII. Fig. 3.] 

 Oolumba fasciaia. Sat, in Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii., p. 10. 



This bird, which is a male, was shot in July, by Mr. Titian Peale, at 

 a saline spring on a small tributary of the river Platte, within the first 

 range of the Rocky Mountains ; it was accompanied by another indi- 

 vidual, probably its mate, which escaped. As no other specimens have 

 been discovered, the reader will not be surprised that our specific 

 description is unaccompanied by a general history of their m^inners. 



The Baiid-tailed Pigeon is thirteen inches long ; the bill is yellow, 

 black at tip, and somewhat gibbous behind the nostrils. • The feet are 

 yellow, and the nails black ; the irides are blackish. The head is of a 

 purplish-cinereous color ; the neck, at its junction with the head, has a 

 white semi-band, beneath which its back and sides are brilliant golden- 

 green, the feathers being brownish-purple at base ; the under part of 

 the neck is pale vinaceous-purplish, this color becoming paler as it 

 approaches the vent, which, together with the inferior tail coverts, is 

 white. The anterior portion of the back, the wing coverts, and scapu- 

 lars, are brownish-ash; the primaries are dark brown, edged with 

 whitish on the exterior webs ; the lower part of the back, the rump, 

 tail coverts, inferior wing coverts, and sides, are bluish-ash, brighter 

 beneath the wings. The shafts of the body feathers and tail coverts 

 are remarkably robust, tapering rather suddenly near the tip. The tail, 

 which consists of twelve feathers, is slightly rounded at tip, with a 

 definite blackish band at two-thirds the length from the base, visible on 

 both sides ; before this band the color is bluish-ash, and behind dirty 

 grayish : the tail is much lighter on the inferior surface. 



This species is closely allied to Columba caribcea of Gmelin, with 

 which Say stated its analogy, and also to Columba leucocephala of Linng. 



