FAMILY COLUMBIDvE 



all delivered rapidly and almost breathlessly. 

 After learning their notes I heard them near the 

 Gamboa road and the Cruces Trail, but only 

 once caught a glimpse of one. 



4. Family COLUMBIDuE 

 The Pigeons and Doves 



The domestic pigeons make the characters 

 of this group familiar to everybody, though 

 its members vary much in size. They are 

 graceful, rather stout-bodied birds, with a 

 small head, rather small and narrow bill, the 

 wings generally rather long and pointed, 

 giving a powerful flight and producing a 

 whistling or rustling sound as they fly; the 

 plumage usually smooth and rather subdued 

 in color, but of ten. with some metallic luster, 

 especially on the neck; and with short legs 

 and a tail of varying length and shape, never 

 forked. There are several hundred species 

 found in all temperate and tropical regions; 

 they are especially numerous in New Guinea 

 and adjacent islands. They have a tough 

 gizzard for grinding up the seeds of .which 

 their food largely consists. In habits they 

 vary from chiefly arboreal to more or less 

 terrestrial. Their notes are generally soft 

 and cooing, as in the domestic pigeons, but 

 those of the different species are generally 

 distinguishable by one familiar with them. 



The members of this family are an im- 

 portant source of food for the Indians and 

 residents of the less thickly settled parts of 

 the Panama region, and are so constantly 



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