Sauropsida: Class Aves 551 



ern Hemisphere; expert swimmers and divers, and fairly good fliers 

 except the recently extinct flightless ''great auk." 



Order 16. Columbiformes: Pigeons, doves; all strong fliers; 

 some 500 species; cosmopolitan. (Sometimes included under Charad- 

 riiformes.) The dodo (Fig. 431) and solitaire, recently extinct, were 

 large pigeon-like birds, but flightless. 



Fig. 431. Dodo (Didus ineptus). Facsimile of Piso's 

 figure, made in 1658. (Courtesy, Knowlton and Ridgway: 

 "Birds of the World," New York, Henry Holt & Co., 

 Inc.) 



Order 17. Cuculiformes: Cuckoos; of medium or small size; 

 mostly arboreal; widely distributed; most of them deposit eggs in 

 nests of other birds. Some 45 genera. 



Order 18. Psittaciformes: Parrots, cockatoos, macaws, para- 

 keets; tropical and warm latitudes of both hemispheres; some 80 

 genera. (Sometimes included under Cuculiformes.) 



Order 19. Coraciiformes: A large and heterogeneous group 

 broken into several divisions which older classifications usually list as 

 suborders, but which the more elaborate recent classifications raise to 

 the rank of orders. Mainly comparatively small birds, arboreal, short- 

 legged, and good fliers. In the Eastern Hemisphere, rollers, bee- 

 eaters, hornbills, hoopoes (Fig. 432) ; in the Western Hemisphere. 

 motmots, nighthawks, whippoorwills, hummingbirds, tou- 

 cans; in both hemispheres, kingfishers (Fig. 433), owls, swifts, 

 woodpeckers, trogons. 



