Color Key to North American Birds Part 34

Range.--Southern Florida.

=310c. Rio Grande Turkey= (_M. g. intermedia_). Tips of upper tail-coverts and of tail rusty buff intermediate in color between those of Nos. 310 and 310a.

Range.--"Lowlands of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico."

(A.O.U.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 311.]

=311. Chachalaca= (_Ortalis vetula maccalli_). L. 21. _Ads._ Above olive-brown; tail blacker, all but middle-feathers bordered with whitish; belly brownish. _Notes._ A loud, trumpeting _cha-cha-laca_, repeated a number of times.

Range.--Tropical portions of eastern Mexico, from Vera Cruz north to Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Order XI. PIGEONS AND DOVES.

COLUMB?.

Family 1. PIGEONS and DOVES. Columbidae. 13 species, 3 subspecies.

Pigeons are distributed throughout the greater part of the globe, but their center of abundance appears to be in the Malay Archipelago, where about one hundred and twenty of the some three hundred known species are found. One hundred or more species have been described from the New World but only twelve of these inhabit North America.

The various races of domestic Pigeons, 'Pouters,' 'Fantails,' etc. are descendants of the Rock Dove of Europe, modified in form and habit through the selection by the breeder or 'fancier.'

Pigeons build a flimsy, platform nest of twigs and lay two white eggs.

Both s.e.xes incubate, one relieving the other at certain hours each day. The young are born naked and are fed by regurgitation, on 'Pigeons' milk,' the parent thrusting its bill into the mouth of its young and discharging therein food which has been softened in its own crop.

Some species of Pigeons nest in isolated pairs, others in large colonies, but it is the habit of many species to gather in large flocks after the nesting season.

The Wild or Pa.s.senger Pigeon, once so abundant in this county, was found in flocks throughout the year. Alexander Wilson, the 'father of American Ornithology' writing about 1808, estimated that a flock of Wild Pigeons seen by him near Frankfort, Kentucky, contained at least 2,230,272,000 individuals. Audubon writes that in 1805 he saw schooners at the wharves in New York city loaded in bulk with Wild Pigeons caught up the Hudson River, which were sold at one cent each.

As late as 1876 or 1877 there was a colony of nesting Wild Pigeons in Michigan, which was twenty-eight miles long and averaged three or four miles in width, and in 1881 the birds were still so abundant in parts of the Mississippi Valley that the writer saw thousands of birds, trapped in that region, used in a Pigeon match near New York City.

Today, however, as a result of constant persecution, the Wild Pigeon is so rare that the observation of a single individual is noteworthy.

Pigeons and Doves

[Ill.u.s.tration: 312.]

=312. Band-tailed Pigeon= (_Columba fasciata_). L. 15. _Ad._ [Male].

Tail-band ashy above, whiter below; a white nape-band; tail square.

_Ad._ [Female]. Similar, or in some specimens, nape band absent; pinkish of crown and breast dingy. _Notes._ An owl-like hooting, sometimes a calm _whoo-hoo-hoo_, _whoo-koo-hoo_, at others a spirited _hoop-ah-whoo_, and again _wh'oo-ugh_. (Bailey.)

Range.--"Western United States from Rocky Mountains to the Pacific: north to Was.h.i.+ngton and British Columbia; south to Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala; distribution irregular, chiefly in wooded mountain regions." (A.O.U.)

=312a. Viosca Pigeon= (_C. f. vioscae_). Similar to No. 312, but paler, more clearly bluish slate above; pink of crown and breast with a grayish _bloom_.

Range.--Cape Region of Lower California.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 313.]

=313. Red-billed Pigeon= (_Columba flavirostris_). L. 15. _Ads._ No tail-band; wings, tail, and belly slate; head and neck purplish pink; no iridescent markings. _Notes._ A fine, loud, _coo-whoo-er-whoo_.

Range.--Costa Rica migrating north to southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 314.]

=314. White-crowned Pigeon= (_Columba leucocephala_). L. 13.5 _Ad._ [Male]. Crown white; body slate; lower hindneck iridescent; nape maroon. _Ad._ [Female]. Much paler; crown ashy.

Range.--Greater Antilles and Islands about Anegada Channel, coast of Honduras, Bahamas and certain Florida Keys.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 315.]

=315. Pa.s.senger Pigeon, Wild Pigeon= (_Ectopistes migratorius_).

L. 16. Outer tail-feathers chestnut at base of inner web. _Ad._ [Male]. Chin, whole head., and lower back bluish slate. _Ad._ [Female]. Browner above, breast brownish ashy; neck feathers less iridescent. _Notes._ An explosive, squeaky, squawk.

Range.--Formerly eastern North America north to Hudson Bay; now exceedingly rare, less so in the upper Mississippi valley than elsewhere.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 316.]

=316. Mourning Dove, Carolina Dove= (_Zenaidura macroura_). L. 11.8.

Outer tail-feathers slate color at base of inner web. _Ad._ [Male].

Chin whitish; sides of head buffy; _a black ear mark_. _Ad._ [Female].

Similar but paler, breast more ashy brown, neck-feathers less iridescent. _Notes._ _Coo-o-o-ah, coo-o-o-coo-o-o-coo-o-o._

Range.--North America, breeding from West Indies and Mexico north to southern Maine, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia; winters from southern New York, southern Illinois, Kansas and southern California southward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 317.]

=317. Zenaida Dove= (_Zenaida zenaida_). L. 10. _Ad._ [Male]. Tail short, _without_ white markings; all but central pair of feathers tipped with ashy blue; secondaries tipped with white. _Ad._ [Female].

Similar but pinkish of crown and underparts brownish; neck feathers less iridescent. _Notes._ Resemble those of No. 316, but are louder and deeper.

Range.--Greater Antilles, coast of Yucatan and Bahamas, north in April to Florida Keys.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 318.]

=318. White-fronted Dove= (_Leptotila fulviventris brachyptera_).

L. 12. No black ear-mark; under wing-coverts rusty chestnut. _Ad._ [Male]. Forehead whitish; all but central pair of tail-feathers tipped with white. _Ad._ [Female]. Forehead dingier; breast brownish ashy; neck feathers less iridescent. _Notes._ A short, soft _coo_.

Range.--Central America and Mexico, north in February to valley of Lower Rio Grande.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 319.]