Plate XVII. Male and Female.
Fourteen tail-feathers. Male with the crown of the head and hind part
of the neck light blue; fore neck and breast light purplish-red, sides
and lower wing-coverts light blue, abdomen and lower tail-coverts pale
yellow; upper parts light yellowish-brown; lower part of neck behind
and along the sides changing to gold and purplish-red; some of the
wing-coverts with a black spot; quills and larger coverts
greyish-brown, inclining to greyish-blue at the base, and very
narrowly edged with whitish; middle tail-feathers like the back, the
rest blue at the base, bluish-white toward the end, with a black band
intervening between the two colours. Female smaller, with the tints
duller, the upper part of the head scarcely tinged with blue.
_Male_, 12, 17. _Female_, 11, 15-1/2.
Breeds from Texas to Massachusetts, and throughout the interior to the
eastern bases of the Rocky Mountains, and again on the Columbia River.
Common. Resident in all the Southern Districts.
Columba carolinensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. v. i. p. 286.
Carolina Pigeon or Turtle-Dove, Columba carolinensis, Wils.
Amer. Orn. v. v. p. 91.
Columba carolinensis, Bonap. Syn. p. 119.
Carolina Pigeon or Turtle-Dove, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 626.
Carolina Turtle-Dove, Columba carolinensis, Aud. Orn. Biog. v.
i. p. 91; v. v. p. 555.