THE NATURALIST. 



ON THE IMPROPRIETY OF PLACING THE COLUMBIDiE 

 IN THE ORDER RASORES. 

 By ThomasAllis, 

 Curator of the York Philosophical Society. 



Recent as well as more ancient authors differ in their classification of the 

 ColumbidcB ; some placing them in the order Rasores, others separating them 

 from it, and some even including the Struthionidce in the Rasores. Of this num- 

 ber is Mr. Selby, certainly no mean authority. He says, in the Naturalist's 

 Library, " The Pigeons or family of Columbtdse* are now. in accordance with 

 their true affinities, admitted into the order of the Rasores, or Gallinaceous 

 Birds, of which they form one of the five great groups or divisions, the other 

 four being represented by Pavmidce, Tetraonidce, Struthionidce, and Cracidce. 

 In this order they constitute what is termed an aberrant family (considering the 

 Pavonidce and Tetraonidce as the typical groups); and from the affinity that several 

 of the members composing it shew to the Insessores or Perching Birds, they 

 become the medium by which the necessary connexion between the Rasorial 

 and Insessorial birds is supported ; such indeed appears to have been nearly the 

 view taken of this interesting group by the earlier systematists, whose classifica- 

 tion was not always conducted on those philosophical views which guide the 

 naturalists of the present day ; as we find the Colmnbida arranged alternately 

 among the Insessorial and Gallinaceous birds, or sometimes as an intermediate 

 order separate from both. — An investigation of their habits and economy, both 

 external and internal, shewing the close approximation that some species make 

 to the typical Rasores, is, however, sufficient to prove, that their affinity to the 

 true Gallinaceous birds is much stronger than that which connects them with 

 the Insessores, though the latter is sufficiently so to support the requisite con- 

 nexion between the two orders." 



Thus far Selby. According to Cuvier, the Columbidce is considered as the last 

 family of the Gallinaceous order. A writer in Partington's Cyclopedia takes 

 a different view of the subject, and considers them as a distinct order ; I coincide 

 with him in this respect, though I do not agree with him in all the facts on which 

 that opinion is founded ; he says : — " The poultry tribe are, we believe, without a 

 single exception, polygamous." I thought every one had known that the Par- 

 tridge was monogamous ; and I believe the whole of the Cracidce (which are 



* It should be, " the Pigeon family or Columbidai"- Ed. 

 No. S, Vol. II. 



