442 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



tarsus is short and stout, but varies in the different families, and 

 is more or less feathered in a few ; the bare portion is covered 

 with scutellse in front. The feet are more or less elongated, the 

 membrane of the toes sometimes bordering the scutella?, and the 

 soles are broad and flattened in one family. In a few of the 

 arboreal Pigeons, the outer toe is slightly joined at the base to 

 the middle one ; but, in general, the toes are divided to the base. 



In their internal anatomy, too, the Pigeons are well marked. 

 The bony gternum is narrow, and has two notches on each side ; 

 the outermost, one deep, whilst the inner one is often reduced to a 

 foramen ; the lidge is deep, and rounded off anteriorly, somewhat 

 as in Parrots ; and the furcula is flat, and destitute of any append- 

 ao-e. The crop is very large and double, and, in the breeding 

 season, becomes glandular in both sexes, and secretes a milky 

 fluid, which moistens the grains which they afterwards convey to 

 their young. The gizzard is very muscular, the intestines long 

 and slender, with minute cocca, and there is no gall bladder. The 

 lower larynx is furnished with two pairs of muscles. Their 

 feathers want the supplementary plume present in most Rasores ; 

 and, in many, the feathers on the back and rump have the shaft 

 wide and flattened, especially at its basal portion, giving a sort of 

 spinous character to the touch. 



All Pio-eons are mono2:amous in their habits, and both sexes 

 assist in making the nest, incubating the eggs, and feeding the 

 young. They make loosely-constructed nests of twigs, not inter- 

 woven, either on trees, or in holes of rocks or buildings, and never 

 lay more than two eggs ; in some genera only one, and their colour 

 is always pure white. The young are born naked and blind ; 

 they take considerable time to reach maturity, and, long after they 

 fly are fed by their parents, which disgorge the grain, &c. from 

 their own craws. Pigeons feed on fruit and grain, never touching 

 insect food, though a few eat small snails ; and they alone, of all 

 birds, drink by a continued draught. Their note is usually soft 

 and expressive, being, in most, a sort of Coo, or low plaintive moan, 

 in one group a rolling whistle. 



Pigeons are found over all the world, but are most numerous in 

 Australia and the Oceanic region. There are many in America, 



