WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON. 
159 
The size of the white-crowned pigeon has been 
underrated by authors. Its length is fourteen inches, 
and its extent twenty-three. The bill is one inch long, 
carmine red at the base, the end from the nostrils 
being bluish white ; the irides are orange yellow, the 
bare circle round the eye dusky white, becoming red 
in the breeding season ; the entire crown, including 
all the feathers advancing far on the bill, is white, with 
a tinge of cream colour, and is narrowly margined with 
black, which passes insensibly into the general deep 
slate colour : on the nape of the neck is a small deep 
purplish space changing to violet ; the remainder of the 
neck above, and on the sides, is covered by scale-like 
feathers, bright green with bluish and golden reflections, 
according as the light falls ; the sides of the head, the 
body above, and whole inferior surface, the wings and 
tail above and beneath — in short, the whole bird, without 
any exception but the parts described, is of a uniform 
deep bluish slate, much lighter on the belly, more tinged 
with blue on the stout shafted rump feathers, somewhat 
glossy, and approaching to brownish black on the 
scapulars : the quills are more of a dusky black ; the 
wings are nearly eight inches long, reaching, when 
closed, to two-thirds of the tail ; the first primary is 
somewhat shorter than the fourth, and the second and 
third are longest ; the third is curiously scalloped on 
the outer web, which is much narrowed for two inches 
from the tip ; all are finely edged with whitish ; the 
tail is five inches long, perfectly even, of twelve uniform 
broad feathers, with rounded tips ; the feet are carmine 
red, the nails dusky ; the tarsus measures less than an 
inch, being subequal to the lateral toes, and much 
shorter than the middle one. The female is perfectly 
similar. The young are distinguished by duller tints, 
and the crown is at first nearly uniform with the rest 
of their dark plumage : this part, after a time, changes 
to gray, then grayish white, and becomes whiter and 
whiter as the bird grows older. It is proper to remark, 
after what has been said under the article of the band- 
tailed pigeon, that the white colour extends equally 
