Caribbean dove

In the 18th century the Caribbean dove was described under the name "white-bellied dove" by several naturalists including John Ray in 1713,[2] Hans Sloane in 1725[3] and Patrick Browne in 1756.[4] In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Caribbean dove in his six volume Ornithologie. He used the French name Le pigeon de la Jamaïque and the Latin Columba jamaicensis.[5] Although Brisson coined Latin names for species, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[6] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he included the Caribbean dove and placed it with the other pigeons in the genus Columba. Linnaeus included a brief description, used Brisson's Latin name Columba jamaicensis as the binomial name and cited the earlier authors.[7] The species is now placed in the genus Leptotila that was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1837 with the Caribbean dove as the type species.[8][9] A molecular genetic study has shown that the Caribbean dove is most closely related to the white-tipped dove.[10][11]

Four subspecies are recognised:[9]

• L. j. collaris (Cory, 1886) – Cayman Islands
• L. j. gaumeri (Lawrence, 1885) – north Yucatán Peninsula, Isla Mujeres, Isla Holbox and Cozumel (Mexico), Ambergris Caye (Belize) islands off Honduras
• L. j. jamaicensis (Linnaeus, 1766) – Jamaica
• L. j. neoxena (Cory, 1887) – San Andrés (off east Nicaragua)

Media related to Leptotila jamaicensis at Wikimedia Commons