214 BILLS OF PIGEONS. 



There are three forms of bill among the pigeons, 

 each corresponding to a difference of habit ; but they 

 differ so little from the bill of the common pigeon, 

 and that is so well known, that we need not describe 

 them at length, or illustrate them by examples. They 

 are all simple feeding bills. 



The tree pigeons, which are chiefly inhabitants of 

 the warmer parts of the eastern hemisphere, and live 

 upon the seeds of trees, which they gather on the 

 trees themselves, and migrate from region to region 

 after their food, have the bill strong, considerably 

 arched, compressed and very sharp at the tip. In 

 some it bears a resemblance to the bills of the smaller 

 hawks, only it has no tooth, but in its use it ap- 

 proaches more nearly to the bills of the parroquets. 

 The common pigeons have the bill more slender 

 than the tree ones, and flexible for some part of its 



Pigeon . 



length, and they have their characters the more de- 

 cided the more exclusively that they are found on 

 the ground. The long-legged pigeons of the oriental 

 isles, which are large and heavy birds, and more 

 exclusively confined to the ground than any of the 

 others, have the bill still more slender in proportion 



