84 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



the naturalists of the present day, as we find the 

 Columbidse arranged alternately among the Rasorial 

 and Gallinaceous Birds, or sometimes, as an inter- 

 mediate order, separate from hoth. An investiga- 

 tion of their habits and economy, as well as their 

 anatomy, both external and internal, shewing the 

 close approximation that some species make to the 

 typical RasoreS) is, however, sufficient to prove that 

 their affinity to the true Gallinaceous Birds is much 

 stronger than that which connects them with the 

 Insessores, though the latter is sufficiently so to 

 support the requisite connexion between the two 

 Orders. 



Till of late years, the Pigeons appear to have been 

 a tribe unaccountably neglected ; and, in all the writ- 

 ings of the earlier authors, they are classed under 

 one generic head (Columba), without any attempt 

 to distinguish groups, or to notice the differences of 

 character and form exhibited by various species, and 

 particularly apparent in such as approach nearest to 

 the true Gallinse. Even at the present day, much 

 remains to be done, as not only do many of the 

 minor groups remain uri characterized, but even the 

 greater Divisions or Subfamilies, as they are termed, 

 are neither precisely nor satisfactorily established. 



In the history of the Pigeons and Gallinaceous 

 Birds, published by M. Temminck some years ago, 

 that learned author divided the former into three 

 sections ; the first restricted to the Strong -billed 

 Arboreal Pigeons, or those species now constituting 



