ORDER—COLUMBAE. 
PIGEONS. 
T IS now an accepted fact amongst naturalists, whether museum 
I or field, that the Pigeons and Doves are more satisfactorily 
placed in an Order by themselves, than in conjunction with any 
other of the game-birds. 
In their anatomy Pigeons are very closely related to the Gallina- 
ceous birds, and yet more closely to the Péerocletes, or Sand-Grouse, 
though they differ widely from either of these groups in having their 
young born naked and helpless, a character which has induced some 
writers to classify them with the Passeres. Certain other anatomical 
characteristics would seem to show their affinity to both the Strigidae, 
(Owls) and the Vulturidae (Vultures), greatly as they differ from both 
of these in general formation, structure, and external appearance. 
On the whole their place among Aves would seem to come best 
next to the Pterocletes, where Blanford has located them. 
Famity COLUMBIDAE. 
Salvadori, in Volume XXI of the British Museum Catalogue of 
Birds, divides the Pigeons into five families, but Blanford does not 
recognize these differentiations as being of so great value, and combines 
all our Indian birds into one family, though doubtless he would have 
accepted the Gouridae and Didunculidae as separate families had he 
not been dealing with Indian birds only. 
The family Gouridae contains the magnificent Crown-Pigeons of 
the Papuan Islands, birds which differ to some extent in internal con- 
struction as well as external appearance from other Pigeons, and the 
Didunculidae contains the one small Pigeon Didunculus strigirostris 
of the Samoan Islands. 
Salvadori’s other three families are the Z'reronidae or “‘ Green 
Pigeons,” which frequent and roost in trees; the Columbidae or True 
B 
