GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 89 



pressed, and the feathers feel hard and firm to the 

 touch, from the thickness and strength of the rachls 

 or shaft. Upon the neck they assume a variety of 

 forms, in some species being rounded and stiff, and 

 disposed in a scale-like fashion ; in others, of an 

 open, disunited texture, or with the tips divided and 

 curiously notched ; and, in the hackled and nicobar 

 pigeons, they are long, acuminate, and laciniated, 

 like those of the domestic cock ; and we may add, 

 that, in nearly all, they are so constituted as to re- 

 flect prismatic colours, when held at various angles 

 to the light. 



In their mode of nidification, the majority of the 

 Columbidse bears a close analogy to the Insessores ; 

 for, with the exception of some few of the ground pi- 

 geons, they build their nest in trees. The number 

 of eggs laid at each period of hatching is (with the 

 above exception) restricted to two, the colour white, 

 or yellowish-white ; they are incubated by both sexes, 

 the male relieving his mate whenever she is com- 

 pelled to quit the nest in search of food. The young 

 are hatched with merely a thin sprinkling of hairy- 

 like down, and are fed by their parents in the riest 

 till able to fly. At first the food is administered in 

 a soft or pulpy state, being thrown up by the old 

 birds from their crop, after undergoing a partial di- 

 gestion, by which it is rendered a fit nutriment for 

 the callow young ; but as they advance in age, it is 

 given in a less comminuted form. 



The flight of many of the arboreal, and most of 



