ZENAIDA DOVE. 
473 
outer only on each side being pearl grey at tip. This latter 
character, however, we should rather attribute to age than sex, 
if we had not good reason to believe that our female is a per- 
fectly adult bird. 
At first sight, the Zenaida dove might perhaps be mistaken 
for the common turtle dove, ( Columha Carolinensis, and margi- 
nata of authors, ) having the same general colour and several 
common markings ; but, to mention no other differential cha- 
racter, the short even tail, composed of but twelve feathers, all 
rounded, the outer bluish grey at tip, will at once distinguish 
it from the latter, which belongs to a different group, having 
the tail long cuneiform, and (what is found in no other Ame- 
rican species, not even its close relation, the passenger pigeon) 
composed of fourteen tapering and acute feathers, the two 
middle remarkably so, and the lateral pure white at tip. If 
any other distinction should be required, the white tips of the 
secondaries of our new species will afford a good one, as well 
as the outer tail-feather, the exterior web of which is blue 
grey, crossed, as well as the others, by the black band ; whilst 
in the C. Carolinensis it is entirely pure white, the black band 
being confined to the inner web. 
