86 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



perching and grasping, and through which, from 

 their habits and form, the necessary connexion with 

 the Insessorial Order is supported, are likely to con- 

 stitute one ; the True Pigeons, of which our ring- 

 pigeon and common pigeon may be considered typi- 

 cal, a second ; the Turtles, and their allies, with feet 

 of different proportions from the preceding, and gra- 

 duated tails, a third ; the Ground Pigeons, or Co- 

 lumbi-gallines of the French naturalists, a fourth ; 

 and the fifth is not unlikely to be represented by 

 Vieillot's genus Lophyrus, in which the deviation 

 from the proper Columbine form is not to that of 

 the typical Rasores, but to the Cracidce, placed at 

 the farther extremity, and, like the Columbidae, an- 

 other aberrant family of the Rasorial Order. 



The Columbidae possess a very extensive geogra- 

 phical distribution, species being found in every 

 quarter of the world, and in all its cb'mates, except 

 those within the frigid zones. It is, however, in 

 the tropical climates of Southern Asia, and the is- 

 lands of the great Indian Archipelago, that the spe- 

 cies swarm in the greatest variety and abundance ; 

 for in these warm and genial climates, a never-fail- 

 ing supply of food, adapted to each kind, is al- 

 ways to be found. It is here that most of the 

 thick-billed pigeons, * vying with the parrots in the 

 colour of their plumage, and, in some respects, re- 

 sembling them in their manners, luxuriate amidst 

 the thick and umbrageous foliage of the banyan, and 

 other trees, whose fruit affords them a rich and ne- 

 * Vinago, Cuv. 



