156 
COLUMBA FASCIATA. 
bad set out, or adorning the naked branches of some 
distant, high, and insulated tree. In the countries 
where they pass the summer, they build their nest on 
the limb of a pine, towards the centre ; it is composed 
of grasses and earth, and lined internally with feathers. 
The female lays five eggs, which are white, spotted 
with yellowish. The young leave their nest in June, 
and are soon able to join the parents in their autumnal 
migration. 
In the northern countries, where these birds are 
very numerous, when a deep snow has covered the 
ground, they appear to lose all sense of danger, and by 
spreading some favourite food, may be knocked down 
with sticks, or even caught by the hand, while busily 
engaged in feeding. Their manners are, in other respects, 
very similar to those of the common crossbill, as 
described by Wilson, and they are said also to partake 
of the fondness for saline substances so remarkable in 
that species. 
GENUS XVII. — COL UMBA. 
38. COLUMBA FASCIATA , SAY. BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE VIII. FIG. III. 
This bird, which 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 accompanied by another individual, 
probably its mate, which escaped. As no other speci- 
mens 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 nostrils ; the feet are yellow, and the nails black ; 
the irides are blackish ; the head is of a purple cine- 
reous colour; the neck, at its junction with the head, 
has a white semiband, beneath which its back and sides 
are brilliant golden green, the feathers being brownish 
