COLUMBAE 325 



that year and the succeeding. Besides breeding in Denmark, 

 Holstein, and no doubt elsewhere on the Continent, two pairs 

 nested in 1888 in the east of Yorkshire, and one or more on the 

 Culbin Sands in Moray, whence in 1889 Professor Newton 

 received on August 8 a chick of two or three days old. This 

 was exhibited at the Newcastle Meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion, and subsequently figured .in The Ibis. 1 Doubtless the 

 above were not the only cases of reproduction in England, and it 

 was hoped that a protective Act, which came into force in 

 February 1889, would lead to permanent colonization; but by 

 1890, or, according to some, 1892, all the birds had disappeared. 

 As a fossil, Pterocles occurs in the Eocene and Miocene of France. 



The Sub- Order COLUMBAE must certainly be divided into the 

 Families Dididae for the Dodo and Solitaire, and Columbidae for 

 the Pigeons, while a third, Didunculidae, may be added to contain 

 the Tooth-billed Pigeon of Samoa, to which Otidiphaps of Papu- 

 asia is possibly allied. For convenience sake we may accept four 

 Sub-families of the Columbidae, namely (1) Gourinae, (2) Peris- 

 terinae, (3) Columbinae, and (4) Treroninae, though the arrange- 

 ment is somewhat arbitrary. Dr. Gadow 2 segregates Caloenatinae, 

 but not Peristerinae, while he and Count Salvador! 3 agree in con- 

 sidering Didunculus merely on a level with these subdivisions. 



Throughout the group the body is compact, while the bill 

 varies from stout to slender, being swollen and hardened at the 

 decurved tip, which forms a hook in the Dididae and Didunculidae. 

 The base of this feature is covered with a soft skin or cere, 

 containing the nostrils ; Globicera, Vinago calva, and Ptilopvs 

 insolitus have a fleshy or bony knob at the posterior part of the 

 culmen, said to be most prominent in the breeding season ; and 

 Didunculus has the mandible toothed and truncated. The 

 metatarsi, reticulated in the Gourinae, but scutellated elsewhere, 

 are usually partly feathered, especially in Fruit-Pigeons; some 

 species of Columbigattina, however, have them naked ; Drepanoptila 

 has them entirely covered; and in many domestic breeds the 

 plumage extends over the toes, which are all on the same level, 

 and possess moderate claws. The skin is more or less expanded 



1 For further details see A. Newton, Ibis, 1864, pp. 185-222 ; 1890, pp. 207-214 ; 

 Diet. Birds, 1894, pp. 805-810 ; cf. also Zool. Rec. 1888-89. 

 - Bronn's Thier-Reich, Aves, Syst. Tkeil, 1893, p, 210. 

 3 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxi. 1893, p. 3. 



