Genus OREOPELEIA, Reichenbach.

Oreopeleia, Reichenbach, Handbuch der speciellen Ornithol. I, i, 1851, page xxiv. (Type, Columba martinica, L.)

Gen. Char. Bill lengthened, slender; culmen half the rest of the head from the frontal feathers. Feet large, stout; tarsi longer than the middle toe and claw, covered anteriorly by transverse scutellæ. Inner lateral claw longer than outer; reaching beyond the base of the middle one, the outer falling short of it. Hind toe and claw more than half the middle. Quills and tail-feathers very broad; the wings rounded; second and third quills longest, the first intermediate between the fourth and fifth. Tail suborbicular, the shafts convex outwardly; the feathers rounded, and a little graduated.

Of this genus, which is peculiar to America, two well-marked species, may be distinguished.

O. martinica. Above chestnut-rufous, the crown and nape with purplish-green, the lower part of nape with golden-green, the back with violet, the other upper parts with bright purplish-red reflections; beneath pinkish-white, more purplish on the jugulum. A distinctly marked light stripe on the cheek, bordered below by one of purplish-red. Length, 10.70; wing, 6.20; tail, 5.75. Hab. Key West, Florida (?) Cuba, and Martinique.

O. montana.[111] Above deep orange-rufous, without bright reflections, but with an opaque gloss of reddish-purple on the back and nape. Beneath ochraceous, inclining to vinaceous on the jugulum. Cheeks without distinct whitish bar bordered below by reddish. Wing, 5.70. Hab. Atlantic region of Middle America from Xalapa to Brazil; West Indies.

Oreopeleia martinica, Reich.
KEY WEST PIGEON.

Columba martinica, Gmelin, I, 1788, 781 (not of Temminck). Geotrygon martinica, Bonap. Consp. Av. II, 1854, 74.—Cab. Jour. IV, 1856, 108. Oreopeleia martinicana, Reich. Syst. Av. 1851, page xxv.—Ib. “Icones Avium, tab. 257, fig. 1431.” Columba montana, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 382, pl. clxvii.—Ib. Syn. 1839, 191.—Ib. Birds Am. V, 1842, 14, pl. cclxxxii.—Nuttall, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 756 (not of Linnæus). Zenaida montana, Bonap. Geog. & Comp. List, 1838. “Columbigallina montana, Temminck.” “Columba mystacea, Lembeye,” Bonap. (not of Temminck). Oreopeleia martinica, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 607.—Cab. J. IV, 109 (Cuba).—Gundl. Repert. Cub. I, 1866, 299 (Cuba).—Reich. Handb. Taub. 31, tab. 257, fig. 1432.