77 
BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 
COLUMBA FASCIATA. 
Plate VIII. Fig. 3. 
Columba fasciata, Sat, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains , II, p. 10. 
Philadelphia Museum , No. 4938. 
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 accompa¬ 
nied by another individual, probably its mate, which escaped. As 
no other specimens have been discovered, the reader will not be 
surprised that our specific description is unaccompanied by a gen¬ 
eral 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 purplish-cinereous colour; the neck, at its junction with the 
head, has a white semi-band, beneath which its back and sides are 
brilliant golden-green, the feathers being brownish-purple at base; 
the under part of the neck is pale vinaceous-purplish, this colour 
becoming paler as it approaches the vent, which, together with the 
inferior tail coverts, is white. The anterior portion of the back, 
the wing coverts, and scapulars, are brownish-ash; the primaries 
are dark brown, edged with whitish on the exterior webs; the 
lower part of the back, the rump, tail coverts, inferior wing coverts, 
and sides, are bluish-ash, brighter beneath the wings. The shafts 
of the body feathers and tail coverts are remarkably robust, taper¬ 
ing rather suddenly near the tip. The tail, which consists of twelve 
VOL. I.-U 
