White-winged Dove 161 
White-winged Dove. Melopelia asiatica. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 319—Colorado Records—Berthoud 77, p. 83 
(M. leucoptera) ; Cooke 97, pp. 73, 160, 203. 
Description.—Male—General colour above, including the middle tail- 
feathers, olive-brown; top of the head and neck dull pinkish, an 
irridescent patch on the sides of the neck and a steely-blue spot below 
the ear-coverts ; primaries dusky with a narrow white edging; wing 
with a broad white bar from the carpal joint to the longest coverts ; 
rump and under-parts bluish; outer tail-feathers slaty-blue, then 
slaty-black, then squarely tipped with ashy-white ; iris purple, bill black, 
legs pinkish-purple. Length 12-0; wing 6-5; tail 4-5; culmen and 
tarsus -87. 
The female is similar, but smaller and duller coloured. 
Distribution.—The southern United States from Florida, Texas, 
New Mexico and Arizona, south to Costa Rica and the West Indies. 
The White-winged Dove is only of accidental occurrence in Colorado. 
It is essentially a bird of the hot and dry lower sonoran and tropical 
zones. Berthoud reported that he saw a flock of a dozen and killed one 
or two in July, 1869, in Cub Creek in Jefferson co., at timber line—a 
very remarkable record. Cooke states that one was shot by Mr. 
A. D. Baker in the Wet Mountain Valley in September, 1889. These 
are the only known instances of its occurrence. 
ORDER ACCIPITRES. 
This order contains the Eagles, Hawks, Vultures, 
American Vultures or Condors, and other diurnal birds 
of prey. They are characterized as follows: Bill stout, 
strong and hooked, with a soft-skinned cere at the base 
within which open the nostrils; lores generally naked 
and bristly, never forming a regular ruff or facial disk 
as in the Owls; eyes not forwardly directed as in the 
Owls, but looking out laterally as in other birds ; with 
a few exceptions, wing with ten primaries, tail with 
twelve rectrices ; legs generally rather short and stout, 
with three toes in front and one behind, cleft or 
only basally webbed, provided with strong curved 
and sharp pointed claws, adapted for grasping their 
prey. 
M 
