(Letter from Caleb S. Cope.) II mo 9th '90. 
Dear Eriend 
Joseph Dalton 
Thy letter of the 7th was received on the 8th. We 
met with 3 or 4 distinct varieties of pigeons in Washington Terri- 
tory, there was a small pigeon quite numerous near Tecoma and a 
party colored pigeon in every respect very similar to our own tame 
pigeon, in the woods. Also the common wild pigeon (Ectopistes 
Carolinensis ) (-V. migratorius- ) which I spoke of as having met 
with on the prairies; its general features are those of the dove 
with long tapering tail, the under side of which and outside feath- 
er were white. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway thus mention it. On 
the high central plains west of Humboldt Mountains Nevada. There 
is no blue on the outer web of the first tail feather which is 
white . John K, Townsend a member of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia who, when a young man in company with 
Capt. Wrieth (Wyeth) and the eminent botanist Nuttall in 1834-5-6 
dros^ed the Rocky Mts. to the Columbia River collected a number of 
specimens in Ornithology which for a long time graced the cabinet 
of that Institution, mentioned the Wild Pigeons as being found in 
Washington -territory. B, H. War ren speaks of it as straggling 
westward to Nevada and Washington Territory, 
ihe nand— tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciatus) is thus describ- 
ed by Nuttall, Bluish gray, a. white band behind the head, a broarf : 
black bar near the middle of the tail which is short and even. 
Elliott Coues mentions the Band-tail Pigeon as found from the 
Rocky Jlts * L0 Pacific, dhiefly in woodlands sometimes in flocks 
A 
