294 ZENAIDA DOVE. 



been able to procure specimens, is also well known to breed on the 

 Florida keys ; wbither probably almost all the West-Indian species 

 occasionally resort. 



COLUMBA ZENAIDA. 



ZENAIDA DOVE. 



[Plate XVII. rig. 2.] 



Columba zenaida, Nob. Add. Orn. TJ. S. in Journ. Acad. Phil. Id. Cat. Birds TJ. S. 

 Sp. 198, in Contr. Mad. Lye. Ph. i., p. 22. Id. Syn. Birds U. S. Sp. 198. in Ann. 

 Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. ii., p. 119. Id. Svppl. in Zool. Journ. Land. T., p. 6. 



The name of Dove is not commonly used to ■ designate a systematic 

 group, but is employed for all the small Pigeons indiscriminately, whilst 

 the larger Doves are known as Pigeons. Even this distinction of size 

 however does not seem to be agreed upon, as we find authors calling 

 the larger species Doves, and the smaller ones Pigeons, and sometimes 

 even applying both appellations to different sexes or ages of the same 

 species, as in the case of the common American Pigeon, Columba 

 migratoria. This extensive family of birds, so remarkable for richness 

 and splendor of colors, so important as contributing largely to supply 

 the wants of mankind, so interesting as forming so perfect a link 

 between the two great divisions of the feathered tribes, has been divided 

 on more philosophical principles into three groups, which some naturalists 

 consider as genera, and others as subgenera or sections. Of these two 

 only are found represented in America, the third, a very natural group, 

 being confined to Africa and the large eastern islands of the old world. 

 That to which the present bird, and all the North American species but 

 one, belong, is the most typical of all, being characterized by a straight and 

 slender bill, both mandibles of which are soft and flexible, and the upper 

 turgid towards the end; by their short tarsi, divided toes, and long 

 acute wings, with the first primary somewhat shorter than the second, 

 which is the longest. This group (the true Pigeons and Doves) is how- 

 ever so numerous in species, that we cannot but wonder that it should 

 still remain comparatively untouched by the reforming hand of our 

 contemporaries ; especially seeing that as good reasons may be found 

 for subdividing them as the Parrots, and other large natural groups. 

 We may indicate the differences exhibited in the form of the scales 

 covering the tarsus, and the shape of the tail, &c., as offering characters 

 on which sections or genera could be founded. But as the species of 

 the United States, which are those we are to treat of, are but few, we 



