RASORES. 105 



Order RASORES. 



If we were to remove the Columhidw (or Pigeons) from tlie 

 Rasores, Australia would indeed be meagrely supplied with 

 the members of this Order ; for how sparingly do its varied 

 forms occur therein ! No bird like the gorgeous Peacock of 

 India ; no Pheasant, as in ancient Colchis ; no true Gallus, 

 the bird that from all time has supplied the wants of man ; 

 no Grouse or Partridge to herald in a season of sport or 

 pastime : a few Turnices, a Quail, and an apology for our 

 Perdix cinerea in the Synoiciis australis are nearly all the 

 birds of this Order to which she can lay claim ; but on the 

 other hand, among the few she does possess, she can boast 

 of her Talegalhs, her Leipoa, and her Megapodius, as birds 

 whose extraordinary habits and economy compensate for the 

 paucity of Gallinacese. 



Family COLUMBID-ffi. 



The members of this important family are distributed over 

 every portion of the globe, in no part of which are they more 

 numerous than in Australia, since that country is inhabited 

 by more than twenty species, which, like the Psittacidce, 

 comprise several well-marked and distinct genera, and appear 

 to be naturally divided into two great groups, the one arboreal, 

 the other terrestrial; the Ptilinopi, Carpophagce, and Loplio- 

 laimus, with their expansive gullets and broad hand-like feet, 

 forming part of the former, and the members of the genera 

 Phaps, Geojohaps, and Geopelia, the latter. The Ptilinopi 

 and other allied forms are, in consequence of the peculiar 

 character of the vegetation, confined, without a single excep- 

 tion, to the eastern and northern coasts. 



