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COLUMBA LEUCOCEPHALA. 
39 . COLUMBA LEUCOCEPHALA, UN. — WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE XVII. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This bird has been already alluded to in tlie preceding* 
article, when pointing out the difference between it and 
the new Columba fasciata of Sslj. We were then far 
from supposing that we should so soon have to become 
its historian ; but having ascertained that it inhabits 
Florida, as well as the West Indies, we are enabled to 
give it a place in these pages. 
The white-crowned pigeon, well known as an inha- 
bitant of Mexico and the West Indies, is likewise found 
in great numbers on some of the Florida keys, such 
as Key Yacas and others, early in spring, where it 
feeds almost exclusively on a kind of wild fruit, usually 
called beach plum, and some few berries of a species of 
palmetto, that appears to be peculiar to those keys. They 
are also extensively spread in Jamaica and St Domingo, 
and are very abundant in the island of Porto Rico, 
frequenting deep woods, and breeding on rocks, whence 
they are called by some rock pigeons. They are very 
numerous on all the Bahama Islands, and form an 
important article of food with the inhabitants, parti- 
cularly when young, being then taken in great quantities 
from the rocks where they breed. On the Florida 
keys also they breed in large societies, and the young 
are much sought after by the wreckers. They there 
feed principally on berries, and especially on those of a 
tree called sweetwood. When the fruit of this is ripe, 
they become fat and well flavoured, but other fruits 
again make their flesh very bitter. 
Buffon, in accordance with his whimsical idea of 
referring foreign species to those of Europe, considers 
the present as a variety of the biset ( Columba livia , 
Briss.) To that bird it is in fact allied, both in form 
and plumage; and has, moreover, the same habit of 
breeding in holes and crevices of rocks ; but it is, at the 
same time, entirely distinct. 
