INTRODUCTION 



Of the white-winged dove, Zenaida asiatica, five subspecies have been 

 generally recognized by taxonomists: Z. a. asiatica, Z. a. mearnsi, Z. a. 

 australis, Z. a. meloda, and Z. a. aliicola. Ranges of the races asiatica 

 and mearnsi extend as far north as the southwestern United States, 

 australis is in some of the lowlands of Central America, and meloda 

 is in western South America (Peters, 1937, p. 87-88; Hellmayr and 

 Conover, 1942, p. 499-503) . Later the race alticola was described 

 from the Altos, the high mountain region of western Guatemala, and 

 neighboring highlands (Saunders, 1951) . 



Van Rossem (1947) described a subspecies clara from the Cape 

 region of Baja California, pointing out that it was paler than mearnsi, 

 but clara was not generally accepted (Friedmann et al., 1950) . The 

 series of 23 males and 14 females from Baja California examined dur- 

 ing the present study do not show sufficient differences from mearnsi 

 to justify separation from that race. Tlie peninsular birds have longer 

 wings and tail than mearnsi, but in adult males these differences 

 are only 2 millimeters in average length of wings and 3 millimeters 

 in average length of tail. The Baja California whitewings seem to be 

 relatively sedentary— apparently they do not migrate beyond that State. 

 Additional research may reveal other differences from mearnsi in 

 habits and ecology. 



The present paper describes seven new subspecies. Apparently, 

 ornithologists have assumed that asiatica is the resident form in much 

 of Central America because their collections, made mostly in the 

 autumn and winter months, include so many of this race; other white- 

 wings have been lumped as asiatica with the observation that this race 

 shows wide variation (Dickey and van Rossem, 1938; Griscom, 1932; 

 and Ridgway, 1916) . While many asiatica winter as far south as 

 Costa Rica, they do not breed in Central America (Saunders, 1959, 

 1962) . It now appears that the race asiatica is much less variable in 

 color and size than was formerly believed. 



My interest in this problem began in 1940 when some of the 

 whitewing nestlings we banded in southern Texas in summer were 

 reported during autumn and winter in Guatemala and El Salvador. 

 In 1942 I visited these countries for the first time during winter and 

 spring to study the numbers and distribution of these doves and the 

 factors affecting them. 



It was during this survey that alticola was found in the Altos of 

 Guatemala (Saunders, 1951) , and other series of whitewings were 

 collected in different parts of Guatemala and El Salvador. Further 

 collecting was done there in 1946 and 1947, and in Mexico from 



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