SEVEN NEW WHITE-WINGED DOVES 



II 



grayer. It is larger and longer in wing and tail than asiatica and 

 mearnsi, and has a shorter bill than the latter. Similar in dimensions 

 to an undescribed race on the Tres Marias Islands, Mexico, but with 

 paler underparts; similar also to Z. a. alticola of the highlands of 

 Guatemala (Saunders, 1951) but much paler above and below. 



DESCRIPTION 



Type, U. S. Nat. Mus. (Fish and Wildlife Sendee Collection) No. 

 481589, adult male, breeding, singing on territory, testes 6 x 12 mm., 

 11 miles south of Acatlan, Puebla, Mexico, April 28, 1957, collected 

 by George B. Saunders, collector's number 2648. Crown brownish drab; 

 hindneck light brownish drab; back hair-brown; tertiaries buffy brown; 

 middle rectrices clove brown; throat and breast light drab; abdomen 

 pale smoke gray; and flanks light quaker drab. 



MEASUREMENTS 



Males (44 specimens, all seasons) : wing 161.3-177.0 mm. (av. 

 167.2), tail 114.0-127.5 (120.4), and culmen 18.9-22.9 (21.1). Females 

 (22 specimens, all seasons): wing 156.0-171.0 mm. (av. 162.8), tail 

 111.0-124.4 (116.2), and culmen 19.2-23.0 (21.0). 



RANGE 



Interior plateau and some of the mountains from Oaxaca north 

 of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, northward in the mesquite and 

 guamachil associations, thorn forest, tropical deciduous forest, and 

 in some localities in oak-pine woodland, to northern Chihuahua, Coa- 

 huila, and Nuevo Leon of Mexico, and the Chisos Mountains and 

 lower Big Bend of central western Texas. Most were observed at 

 elevations of 4,000 to 8,000 feet. They have also been found during 

 summer in Hidalgo County, southwestern New Mexico, where 3 of 

 15 specimens examined were identified as monticola: 2 were collected 

 in 1892, and 1 in 1933. The other 12 were nearer mearnsi. Northern 

 Chihuahua and the southwestern comer of New Mexico may be a 

 zone of intergradation between these two races, but this is an area 

 where whitewings are scarce and local in distribution. 



REMARKS 



Although monticola is widely distributed in the highlands, there 

 are many localities where it is absent. Most were observed in dry 

 woodlands or thorn forest, but some were in agricultural valleys 

 where large guamachiles (Pithecellobium didce) and mesquites of- 

 fered nesting cover and food, or in pecan groves of some of the 

 valleys, and villages. A few others were seen in higher oak and pine 

 woodland. In many localities their absence was due to a lack of 

 suitable habitat, but conversely many places with what appeared to 

 be a good habitat lacked whitewings. In field work during 1950, 1952, 

 1957, and 1960 they were observed in the highlands of every interior 



