23 
ZEN AID A DOVE. 
C0LUMBJ1 ZENJ1IDJ1. 
Plate XVII. Fig. 2. 
Columba zenaida, Nob. Add. Om. U. S. in Journ. Acad. Phil. Id. Cat. Birds U. S. 
Sp. 198, in Contr. Macl. Lyc. Ph. I, p. 22. Id. Syn. Birds U. S. Sp. 198, in Ann. 
Lyc. Nat. Hist. JV*. Y. II, p. 119. Id. Suppl. in Zool. Journ. Bond. V, p. 6. 
My Collection. 
% 
The name of Dove is not commonly used to designate a 
systematic group, but is employed for all the small Pigeons 
indiscriminately, whilst the larger Doves are known as Pigeons. 
Even this distinction of size however does not seem to be agreed 
upon, as we find authors calling the larger species Doves, and 
the smaller ones Pigeons, and sometimes even applying both 
appellations to different sexes or ages of the same species, as in 
the case of the common American Pigeon, Columba migratoria . 
This extensive family of birds, so remarkable for richness and 
splendor of colours, so important as contributing largely to 
supply the wants of mankind, so interesting as forming so perfect 
a link between the two great divisions of the feathered tribes, 
has been divided on more philosophical principles into three 
groups, which some naturalists consider as genera, arid others as 
subgenera or sections. Of these two only are found represented 
in America, the third, a very natural group, being confined to 
Africa and the large eastern islands of the old world. That to 
which the present bird, and all the North American species but 
one, belong, is the most typical of all, being characterized by a 
straight and slender bill, both mandibles of which are soft and 
