BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 377 



(the graduation equal to less than half the length of exposed cul- 

 men), less than the basal half overlaid by the coverts. Tarsus 

 about as long as middle toe without claw, or slightly shorter, rather 

 stout, the upper portion together with lower end of tibia completely 

 bare, the acrotarsium with an outer row of large transverse scutella, 

 the inner side with a row of similar but more hexagonal scutella, the 

 planta tarsi with small, and for the most part indistinct, hexagonal 

 scales ; lateral toes decidedly shorter than middle toe, both with their 

 claws falling slightly short of base of middle claw; hallux relatively 

 small and slender, its length (without claw) slightly exceeding length 

 of basal phalanx of middle toe. 



Plumage and coloration. — Plumage of head, neck, and chest blended; 

 bare orbital space rather large, especially anteriorly, where continued 

 in a narrow strip entirely across lores to the rictus. A black sub- 

 auricular spot and paler apical area on lateral rectrices, as in Zenaida 

 and Zenaidura, but wings without any black spots and distal wing- 

 coverts with outer webs white, forming a conspicuous longitudinal 

 patch on wing; upper parts plain grayish brown, under parts plain 

 grayish, the head, neck, and chest more or less vinaceous-drab ; 

 lateral rectrices crossed by a post-median black band, the basal por- 

 tion deep or dark gray, the apical portion pale gray or grayish white. 



Range. — Southern border of United States to Costa Rica; Bahamas 

 and Greater Antilles; Peru and northern Chile. (Two species.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF MELOrELIA. 



a. Smaller (wing 142-171.5; tail 84.5-121.5); whitish tip to lateral rectrices relatively- 

 much broader; anal region white. (Melopelia asiatica.) 

 b. Smaller and more deeply colored, the neck and chest more buffy brownish; adult 

 male averaging wing 156.3, tail 103.4, culmen 19.7, tarsus 24.7, adult female 

 averaging wing 151.4, tail 98.1, culmen 19.3, tarsus 23.7. (Cuba; Jamaica; Haiti; 

 Inagua; Old Providence I.; lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas and southward 

 through lowlands of eastern Mexico, to western Costa Rica; occasional in south- 

 ern Florida and Louisiana.) Melopelia asiatica asiatica (p. 378). 



• bb. Larger and paler, the neck, chest, etc., more grayish; adult male averaging 

 wing 164.3, tail 114.7, culmen 22.5, tarsus 25.5, adult female averaging wing 

 158.9, tail 105.6, culmen 22, tarsus 24. (Southern New Mexico to Lower 

 California and southward to States of Guerrero and Puebla, Mexico. 



"Melopelia asiatica mearnsi (p. 382). 

 aa. Larger (wing 175, tail 127 mm.); whitish tips to lateral rectrices relatively much 

 shorter; anal region gray. (Coast district of Peru and northern Chili.) 



Melopelia meloda (extralimital). 



"■Columba meloda Tschudi, Wiegmann's Archiv fur Naturg., ix, pt. i, 1843, 385 

 (w. side of Andes in Peru); Fauna Peruana, Aves, 1844-46, 44, 276, pi. 29. — [Melopelia] 

 meloda Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., ii, 1857, 81. — Melopelia meloda Sclater, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. Lond.,'1867, 330, 339 (Chile); TaczanowsM, Orn. du Perou, iii, 1886, 241; 

 Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxi, 1893, 395. — M[elopeleia] meloda Reichenbach, 

 Vollst. Naturg., Columbariae, i, 1861, 23, pi. 254 (clix), fig. 1418 (Tacna, Peru; Chile).— 

 Zenaida souleyetiana Des Mure, in Gay's Hist, de Chile, i, 1847, 380, pi. 7. — Melopelia 

 souleyetiana Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., ii, 1857, 81, in text. 



