114 OUR DOMESTIC FOAYLS. 



and rear tlieir young on tlie ledges, or in the 

 rifts and fissures of tlie rock. 



There has been much diffei'cnce among 

 naturahsts respecting the natural affinities of 

 the pigeon, or columbine group; some con- 

 sidering them as forming a part of the rasorial, 

 or gallinaceous order, others regarding them 

 as constituting a distinct order, an opinion 

 entertained by Temminck, De Blainville, and 

 the prince of Musignano, and which we think 

 is correct. Though zoological niceties in a 

 popular work like the present are out of place, 

 still it may not be uninteresting to the general 

 reader to follow out a succinct review of those 

 peculiarities, which draw a line of demarcation 

 between the pigeons and the gallinaceous, or 

 other orders of the feathered race. 



The gallinaceous birds are polygamous, and 

 the females lay numerous eggs ; the young are 

 hatched in a very developed state, and soon 

 run about and feed themselves. Pigeons, on 

 the contrary, pair ; and it would appear that 

 in general a single male and female remain 

 mated for Ufe. Both work in concert in the 

 construction of a rude inartificial nest, in 

 which the female deposits two eggs, on which 

 the male and female sit in turn. The young 



