NATURAL HISTORY 



OF 



GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 



COLUMBIDJE OR PIGEONS. 



THE Pigeons, or family of the Columbidae, which 

 furnish the materials for the present volume, are now, 

 in accordance with their true affinities, admitted into 

 the order of the Rasores, or Gallinaceous Birds, of 

 which they form one of the five great groups or 

 divisions, the other four being represented by the 

 Pavonidae, Tetraonidae, Struthionidae, and Cracidae. 

 In this Order,) they constitute what is termed an 

 Aberrant family (considering the Pavonidae and Te- 

 traonidae as the typical groups) ; and, from the affi- 

 nity that several of the members composing it, she w 

 to the Insessores or Perching Birds, they become the 

 medium by which the necessary connexion between 

 the Rasorial arid Insessorial orders is supported. 

 Such, indeed, appears to have been nearly the view 

 taken of this interesting group by the earlier syste- 

 matists, whose classification was not always conduct- 

 ed on those philosophical principles which guide 



