PIGEONS. 



253 



graceful bird, walks on the ground with ease, and rises on the wing without much loiicl 

 tlaiijiiiig. It will raise two or three broods in a season, ])lacing its nest in the IhiUdw 

 of a tree, sometimes in rabl)it-bnrri)\vs or other convenient holes in the ground. 

 Both sexes incubate and assist iu rearing their young. It feeds on various grains and 

 seeds, and when numerous is very troublesome to farmers. 



-V remarkably colored pigeon of this genus is C. Icuconota from the noilhwest 

 Ilimnialehs. The back, neck, and rump arc white; the top of head and ear-coverts 





h :oj« f* 



Fio. 121. — Cotumba tenas^ etock-pigeou, and C, palumOus, riiig-Uove. 



ashy black, wings brownish gr.ay, crossed with three or four dusky bars. Tail ashy 

 black, crossed by a broad grayish wliitc bar. This is the snow-]>igeon and inijterial 

 rock-jiigeon of sportsmen. It frequents rocky heights and sequestered valleys from an 

 altitude of 10,0(10 feet to the snow level. It feeds in the fields, returning to the rocks 

 to roost, and is sliy and wary. C f/uhici ami C. arguatrix (sometimes jilaced in a 

 genus called StictTuas), are African species of al)oiit twelve inches in length, the 

 fonner with a cinereous or plumbeous |pluniage, with the neck, bn'rtst, back, shoulders 

 and wing-coverts vinaceous, the latter spoiled with white ; the tail is black. It is a 



