{Cases 
19 & 20.] 
- 
36 BIRD GALLERY. 
they are hatched. The eggs, three to five in number, are double- 
spotted with dark purplish-brown and lilac, and laid in a slight 
hollow in the ground lined with dry grass. Hemipodes are entirely 
birds of the Old World, and are distributed over Africa, Madagascar, 
India, and China, and extend throughout the Malayan Archipelago to 
Australia. 
The Andalusian Hemipode (Turniv sylvatica) (199) inhabits Southern 
Europe and North Africa, and is said to have been met with on three 
occasions in the South of England. Like the rest of its allies, it is 
solitary in its habits, frequenting dry grassy plains and localities covered 
with low trees and dense bushes, where it is difficult to flush, and 
escapes from danger by running. 
Order LV. COLUMBIFORMES. Picron-rripe. 
The birds of this large order possess so characteristic a physiognomy 
that they may be easily recognised at the first glance. The bill is 
rather slender and weak, covered at the base with a soft, more or less 
swollen membrane, in which the nostrils are situated. Some portion of 
the plumage has almost always a metallic gloss, and many of the exotic 
species are gorgeously coloured. The legs and toes in the typical Pigeon 
are short and not adapted for scratching up the ground like those of the 
Game-Birds, and the legs are never armed with spurs. 
All the species are monogamous, and both sexes assist in building the 
nest, which is a loosely constructed cradle of sticks. The eggs are pure 
white and usually two in number, though there are many species which 
lay only one. ‘The young when hatched are blind and naked, but after 
a little time become clothed with hairy down. They remain in the nest 
for many days and are entirely dependent on the care of their parents, 
who at first feed them with a milky fluid secreted by the crop and 
afterwards with moistened food. 
Pigeons are found all over the world, but are most numerous in the 
Eastern Hemisphere, especially in the islands of the Indo-Pacific Ocean 
and in Australia. 
About 450 species are known, and are valuable to man on account of 
the excellent quality of their flesh. 
The species exhibited bring out very clearly three interesting 
points :—the evidence of adaptation to an arboreal or to a ground- 
dwelling life, the great contrast in size, and the wonderful range and 
variety of coloration. 
