BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 
333 
BAND-TAILED PIGEON.— COLUMBA FASCIATA. 
Plate VIII. Fig. 3. 
Columba fasciata, Say, in Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii. p. 10. — 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 4938. 
COLUMBA FASCIATA.— Say.^- 
Columba fasciata, PoKop. Synop. p. 119. — Wagl. Syst. Av. Columha,'No. 47? 
This bird, wliich is a male, was shot in July, by Mr Titian 
Peale, at a saline spring on a small tributary of the river Platte, 
within the first range of the Rocky Mountains ; it was accom- 
panied by another individual, probably its mate, which escaped. 
As no other specimens have been discovered, the reader will 
not be surprised that our specific description is unaccompanied 
by a general history of their manners. 
The band-tailed pigeon is thirteen inches long ; the bill is 
yellow, black at tip, and somewhat gibbous behind the nos- 
trils ; the feet are yellow, and the nails black ; the irides are 
* We have already passed two distinct forms among the Columbidce in 
the passenger and Carolina pigeons of long and slender form, and wedge-shaped 
tails; and the diminutive ground doves, whose size and strength sometimes 
hardly exceed that of a sparrow. In the bird now described with the leucoce- 
phala, figured in the present volume, we see a third form, and perhaps that to 
which the title Columba should be restricted, including as more familiar examples, 
the common tame pigeon, and the cushat of Europe. Some of the other forms 
in this beautiful group seem more restricted in their distribution. Thus, the 
ground doves and passenger pigeons will nearly claim America ; Vinago will 
claim India and different parts of the Asiatic continent ; and that lovely group, 
with feathered tarsi, known under Ptilonopus, Swain., takes India, New Hol- 
land, and the range of the South Pacific ; while those of the present division will 
extend over the world. Their form is strongly made, with highly developed 
means of a powerful flight ; plumage remarkably dense and strong. They are 
gregarious, except during the breeding season, easily domesticated, and their 
flesh generally good ; breed more than once during the season, and feed on grain 
or on the leaves and soft parts of vegetables, according to circumstances. In 
disposition they are timid and watchful, but rather pugnacious among themselves. 
— Ed. * 
