26 
ZENAIDA DOVE. 
tips. The feet are red; the nails blackish; the tarsus measures 
three quarters of an inch in length. 
The female is very similar to the male in size and colour: the 
head however is but slightly tinged with vinaceous, the golden 
violet reflections of the neck are not quite so vivid, and the 
inferior surface of a paler vinaceous, but graduated as in the 
male. The lateral tail-feathers are also much more uniform with 
the middle one, and of course with the back, the three outer only 
on each side being pearl-gray at tip. This latter character 
however we should rather attribute to age than sex, if we had 
not good reason to believe that our female is a perfectly adult 
bird. 
At first sight, the Zenaida Dove might perhaps be mistaken for 
the common Turtle Dove, (Columba carolinensis, and marginata of 
authors) having the same general colour and several common 
markings; but to mention no other differential character, the 
short even tail, composed of but twelve feathers, all rounded, 
the outer bluish-gray at tip, will at once distinguish it from 
the latter, which belongs to a different group, having the tail 
long cuneiform, and (what is found in no other American species, 
not even its close relation the Passenger Pigeon) composed of 
fourteen tapering and acute feathers, the two middle remarkably 
so, and the lateral pure white at tip. If any other distinction 
should be required, the white tips of the secondaries of our new 
species will afford a good one, as well as the outer tail-feather, 
the exterior web of which is blue-gray, crossed, as well as the 
others, by the black band; whilst in the C. carolinensis it is entirely 
pure white, the black band being confined to the inner web. 
