262 



BACKBONED ANIMALS, 



Order VIII. Pigeons (Columba). General Charac- 

 teristics. The pigeons (Fig. 296) and doves are charac- 

 terized by heavy bodies and short legs. The bill is short, 

 straight, and compressed, the nostrils protected by a fleshy 

 scale. They live in communities, and are, strictly speak- 

 ing, ground-birds. The rock dove is the progenitor of the 

 common stock. The ground dove (Chamczpelia passerind) 

 ranges the United States from Washington to the South 



FIG. 296. Wood-pigeon on her rude nest. 



Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They attain a length of six 

 and a half inches. The general color is a grayish olive 

 with a bluish gloss, the bill black with a yellow tip, and 

 the iris of the eye orange-red. They congregate in flocks 

 of four or five, and nest in low bushes. The Carolina and 

 scaly doves are other American forms. 



The passenger pigeon * (JEctopistes migratorius] is a 



* These migrations are, as we shall see in the lemings, squirrels, 

 rats, etc., not confined to any special time, but are made to obtain a 

 new food-supply. Wilson estimated that a flock contained 2,000,- 

 000,000,000 birds, and consumed per day 17,427,000 bushels of corn. 



