COLUMBID. 293 
The egg is large for the size of the bird; white, 
much blotched and smeared with dusky grey. 
With the Nightjar ends both the division Fissi- 
rostres as well as the great and important Order of 
Insessores. 
OrvER RASORES.—Family Cotumpip. 
I now come to the third Order, that of Rasores, 
which, although by no means so numerous as most 
of the other Orders, nevertheless quite equals them 
in importance, as to it belongs the principal in- 
habitants of the dovecote, the poultry yard and the 
game preserve. ‘he British species included in 
this Order are only twenty-one, and of these only 
sixteen appear to me to have a claim to a place in 
the list of British birds, and only half of that number 
—or eight out of the sixteen—can be included in my 
list. The Columbide, or Pigeons, are the first 
family of this Order that claim our attention 
besides those here enumerated there is one other 
species of this family, the Passenger Pigeon, in- 
cluded in the British list, but it appears only to 
have been twice noticed in England. 
Woop Piaron, Columba palumbus. The first of 
the Columbide I have to notice is the Wood Pigeon : 
it is a resident and very numerous species in this 
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