WOOD-PIGEON 



23 



The wood-pigeon, which is one of those birds as 

 to whose titles, both popular and scientific, all are 

 agreed, is our first representative of the group 

 Columbae (or Columbiformes, as some would call 

 them), nearly all the members of which may be 

 included in the family Columbidse. As some of the features whereby 

 pigeons differ from sand-grouse have been already mentioned, it will 



Wood-Pig-eon op 

 Ring-Dove 

 (Columba 

 palumbus). 



MOUNTED IN THE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



\VOOD-PIGKO\. 



be unnecessary to do more than refer to a few characters whereby 

 the former may be distinguished from the game-birds. An obvious 

 feature is that all four toes are situated in the same horizontal plane, 

 while not less conspicuous is the soft character of the base of the beak, 

 in which the apertures of the nostrils are open and protected by a flap 

 of skin. In the dried skull the nostrils form long slits in place of 

 regular ovals. Then, again, in such pigeons as possess that appendage, 

 the oil-gland is naked instead of tufted ; while if we dissect one of 

 these birds, we shall find the pair of blind appendages near the lower 

 end of the intestine forming merely a pair of small bud-like projections 



