ORDER NINTH. 



PIGEON TRIBE. (Columbini, lUig., &c.) 



The BILL of moderate size, compressed, vaulted, tur- 

 gid towards the tip, which is more or less curved ; the 

 base of the upper mandible covered with a soft skin, pro- 

 tuberant at its base, in which the nostrils are situated. 

 Nostrils medial, longitudinal. Tongue acute, entire. 

 Feet short and rather robust, the tarsi reticulated ; toes 

 divided. Wings xnoAexziie. Tail o^ 12 or 14 feathers. 

 — The female generally similar in plumage to the 

 male. The young differ considerably previous to the 

 first moult, which is annual. 



The birds of this order, in their mild and familiar 

 manners, have a near relation with the Gallinaceous or- 

 der following. They are gregarious, living in thick for- 

 ests, or on high buildings. Their food, consisting of grain 

 and seeds, rarely of insects, undergoes a preparatory mace- 

 ration in the crop, before passing into the stomach, and 

 with the same kind of prepared and disgorged nutriment 

 they feed their young, which only quit the nest when in 

 a condition to fly. They generally build in forests, or in 

 the clefts of rocks, ruins, or hollow trees, and often make 

 a loose and shallow nest of small twigs, roomy enough to 

 accommodate both sexes ; they lay generally 2 eggs, sever- 

 al times in a year, and though so remarkably gregarious, 

 after the termination of the breeding season, they are 



