224 COLUMBID, PIGEONS. 
istic function of mammalia. .‘‘The voice of the turtle is heard in the land” as a 
plaintive cooing, so characteristic as to have afforded another name for the family, 
yemitores. Pigeons are altricial, and monogamous — doubly monogamous, as is said 
when both sexes incubate and care for the young; this is a strong trait, compared 
with the preecocial and often polygamous nature of rasorial birds. They are amorous 
birds whose passion generally results in a tender and constant devotion, edifying to 
contemplate, but is often marked by high irascibility and pugnacity—traits at 
variance with the amiable meekness which doves are supposed to symbolize. The 
nest, as a rule, is a rude, frail, flat structure of twigs; the eggs are usually two in 
number, sometimes one, white. 
“The entire number of pigeons known to exist is about 300; of these the 
Malay Archipelago already counts 118, while only 28 are found in India, 23 in Aus- 
tralia, less than 40 in Africa, and not more than 80 in the whole of America.” 
They focus in the small district of which New Guinea is the centre, where more 
than a fourth of the species occur. Mr. Wallace accounts for this by the absence 
of fruit-eating forest mammals, such as monkeys and squirrels; and finds in the 
converse the reason why pigeons are so scarce in the Amazon valley, and there 
chiefly represented by species feeding much on the ground and breeding in the 
bushes lower than monkeys habitually descend. ‘‘In the Malay countries, also, 
there are no great families of fruit-eating Passeres, and their place seems to be 
taken by the true fruit-pigeons, which, unchecked by rivals or enemies, often form with 
the Psittaci the prominent and characteristic features of the Avifauna.” (Newron.) 
There are three prominent groups of pigeons. The Treroninw are exclusively 
frugivorous and arboricole species, with short, soft, broad-soled and extensively 
feathered feet, 14 rectrices, and soft lustreless plumage, of which green is the 
characteristic color. These are all Old World; the genera are Treron and Ptilono- 
pus, with their subdivisions; ‘54 species are confined to the Austro-Malayan, 
while 28 inhabit the Indo-Malayan, subregion ; in India 14, and in Africa 6 species 
are found; 30 inhabit the Pacific Islands, and 8 occur in Australia or New Zealand, 
while New Guinea has 14 species.” (Wattacrn.) The Gowrine are more or less 
terrestrial species, of both hemispheres, embracing a considerable number of more 
varied generic forms. In the New Guinean Gowra coronata there are 16 rectrices, 
and the head is crested; in the singular Calanas nicobarica, feathers of the upper 
parts are acuminate, elongate and even pendulous; each of these is sometimes 
made the type of a family. There are several other Old World forms, such as 
Trugon, Phaps, Henicophaps, Geophaps, Lophophaps, Ocyphaps and Chalcophaps ; 
our genus Starnonas is an interesting American one. The Columbine are the 
least specialized and most generally distributed group, comprising numerous species 
of which the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) is a type. Of these the Australian 
Lopholemus antarcticus, if really belonging here, is one of the most peculiar; 
Carpophaga and Turtur are leading Old World genera. The North American 
genera, excepting the first two following, are probably Gowrinw in the current 
acceptation of that term; but in the uncertainty attending its precise limitation as 
compared with Columbine, I shall not attempt to distinguish subfamilies. In gen. 
167-8 the tarsi are short and slightly feathered above, a characteristic of arboricole 
pigeons; in the rest, longer and entirely naked, as usual in the terrestrial species ; 
and in many of these there is a naked space above the eyes. The males of nearly 
all our species show a beautiful iridescence on the neck; the sexes are distinguish- 
able by color; the young resembles the female. 
ee ae Sn eS ee Se ee se 
