CEYLON PIGEONS AND GAME BIRDS. 347 
ROUGH DRAFT OF CEYLON PIGEONS 
AND GAME BIRDS. 
By W. E. Watt, M.A., M.B.O.U. 
(With a Plate.) 
HIS instalment of the rough draft comprises the Pigeons 
and Game Birds. In my notes on the Pigeons, while 
following Blanford’s classification in accordance with the 
scheme adopted for the handbook, [ have given short references 
to the trinomial arrangement adopted by Stuart Baker in his 
recently published monograph “‘ Indian Pigeons and Doves,’’* 
the latest work on the Indian families of this order. Un- 
fortunately, the same author’s ““ Game Birds of India, Burma, 
and Ceylon,” which is now appearing serially in the Journal 
of the Bombay Natural History Society, has not yet treated 
of more than two or three species of our Ceylon game birds. 
Order GCOLUMBEZ. 
Pigeons and Doves. 
The Pigeons and Doves form a distinct order, their nearest 
allies being the Sand Grouse and the Gallinaceous birds ; but 
they differ from these two orders, in that the young when 
hatched are helpless and naked. In this respect they resemble 
the Passerine birds. Again, in certain details of their anatomy 
they show affinities with the Owls and Vultures. 
In the bill of a Pigeon the basal portion of the upper mandible 
is covered with a soft skin or cere ; the tip is swollen, hard, 
and convex, forming a sort of knob. The nostrils are narrow 
slits placed near the base of the bill. The wings are generally 
long and pointed, with eleven primary and four secondary 

* Published in London, 1913, by Witherby & Co. 
