ORNITHOLOGY. 



613 



Rasorea. mity horny, arched, or convex, more or less compressed, 

 — — v~^ with a blunt thin-edged point. The tongue is fleshy, ta- 

 pering to a point, and triangular in its transverse section. 

 The throat is very narrow. The oesophagus is of mode- 

 rate width, but expanded, or opening into a large crop, 

 placed on the lower part of the neck and the fore part of 

 the breast, and terminates below in an oblong proventri- 

 culus, completely surrounded with large oblong glandules. 

 The stomach, is a powerful gizzard of a somewhat rhom- 

 boidal form, and furnished with two very thick lateral 

 muscles inserted into two tendinous centres, with an infe- 

 rior-thinner muscle inserted into the same tendons. The 

 intestine is long and slender ; the caeca very small and cy- 

 lindrical ; the rectum very short, and but slightly enlar- 

 ged. The tarsi are generally short and stout, either scu- 

 tellate or feathered. The foot is of that kind equally adapt- 

 ed for walking and perching, having three toes before and 

 one behind ; the middle toe considerably longer than the 

 two lateral, which are nearly equal, and the hind toe di- 

 rected backwards, and shorter than the lateral. They are 

 covered above with numerous short scutella, laterally mar- 

 gined, beneath flat and papillate. The claws are short, 

 compressed, moderately arched, rather blunt. The plu- 

 mage is various, so that no general character can be derived 

 from it, farther than that the feathers have the tube very 

 short, the shaft commonly thick, and are entirely destitute 

 of the accessory plumule, which is largely developed in 

 the gallinaceous birds. The wings are for the most part 

 large, more or less pointed, with the second, third, and fourth 

 quills longest ; but the primary quills vary in form, and pre- 

 sent several very curious modifications. The tail is even, 

 rounded, cuneate, or graduated." 1 The skeleton, Mr Mac- 

 gillivray further remarks, differs very materially from that 

 of gallinaceous birds, and the intestine is much longer, 

 the difference, however, in the other Gallinae being made 

 up by the great development of the caeca, which in pigeons 

 are merely rudimentary, that is, extremely small, and secret- 

 ing only a mucous fluid. We may add the following im- 

 portant character, that the hind toe is articulated on the 

 same plane with the three anterior ones, instead of being 

 placed higher up, as in the rest of the gallinaceous order. 

 Although their legs are short, pigeons walk with great ease 

 and considerable celerity. 



These beautiful birds abound in most of the temperate 

 and tropical regions of the earth, being, however, both 

 more numerous and more gorgeously attired in the latter, 

 where they often rival even the tribe of parrots in the 

 splendour of their plumage, and literally realize the de- 

 lightful expressions of the Holy Scripture — " as the wings 

 of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yel- 

 low gold." The old genus Columba is one of the most 

 cosmopolite with which we are acquainted, being found 

 diffused alike through Europe, Asia, Africa, and America ; 

 and even in the forests of the far-distant Southern Ocean, 

 their radiant plumage 



Fills many a dark obscure recess 

 With lustre of a saintly show. 



In no tribe of the feathered race do we meet with more 

 to delight the eye by its richness and diversity. " In some," 

 says Mr Selby, " the plumage shines with a dazzling and 

 metallic gloss, varying in tint with every motion of the 

 bird, and which vies in lustre with that of the diminutive 

 and sparkling humming-birds. In texture the plumage is 

 generally close and adpressed, and the feathers feel hard 

 and firm to the touch, from the thickness and strength of 



the rachis or shaft. Upon the neck they assume a variety Itasores. 

 of forms, in some species being rounded and stiff, and dis- ' 

 posed in a scale-like fashion ; in others of an open, dis- 

 united texture, or with the tips divided and curiously 

 notched ; and in the hackled and Nicobar pigeons they are 

 long, acuminate, and laciniated, like those of the domestic 

 cock ; and, we may add, that in nearly all they are so con- 

 stituted as to reflect prismatic colours when held at various 

 angles to the light." 2 



The vast variety of species and numerous sub-genera of 

 which the Columbidce are now composed render a full ex- 

 position impossible. We must, indeed, rest satisfied with 

 a very brief notice of a few remarkable kinds. We have 

 four species of pigeon in Britain, and we are not aware 

 that more occur in Europe. 



1st, The ring-dove, cushat, or wood-pigeon, C palum- 

 bus, Linn., a large, beautiful, and well-known species, very 

 generally distributed over the more or less wooded dis- 

 tricts of our island, but avoiding bare and rocky regions. 

 It breeds on trees in single isolated pairs, but is often gre- 

 garious to a great extent in winter. It is a wary bird, of 

 powerful wing, not easily approached even in the forest 

 glades, yet not seldom building in groves or groups of 

 trees in the immediate vicinity of human dwellings ; and 

 we have seen a gentle pair sitting for hours upon the 

 branches of an almost leafless sycamore in early spring, 

 preening their feathers in assured confidence, within a few 

 footsteps of our cottage door. Indeed we have often no- 

 ticed, as others must have also done, what may be called 

 the discrimination of birds, in relation both to persons and 

 to places. We allude to what we should call their ac- 

 commodating rather than their natural instincts, — how, for 

 example, after a season or two of observation or experi- 

 ence, they will congregate around a spot where no rude 

 hands disturb their mossy dwellings, nor climbing urchin 

 shows his visage grim among the umbrageous boughs. 

 This is beautifully exemplified (and on a greater scale 

 than in a cottage garden) among the gladsome palace- 

 groves of the Tuileries and Luxembourg in Paris, where, 

 notwithstanding the gay and giddy stream of human life 

 which flows for ever through those royal walks, the wood- 

 pigeon builds her frequent nest, though far her flight to 

 rural solitudes for every offering which she brings her 

 much-loved young. This species generally breeds twice 

 a year. 



2dly, The rock or wild pigeon, C. livia, Briss., a smaller 

 species, totally regardless of all the leafy glories of the 

 forest, but loving devotedly the craggy cliffs and hollow 

 caverns by the ocean-shore. This species is believed to 

 be the original of our common domestic breed, of which 

 the numerous and extraordinary, yet, with proper care, 

 permanent varieties, are among the more puzzling pro- 

 blems of Ornithology. 3 



3d, The smaller wood-pigeon, erroneously called the 

 stock-dove, C. cenas, Linn. This bird is much more li- 

 mited in its distribution than either of the preceding, being 

 as yet unknown in Scotland, and frequenting chiefly the 

 southern and midland counties of the sister kingdom. It 

 is almost entirely confined to wooded districts, its habits, 

 according to Mr Selby, being strictly arboreal ; yet Mr 

 Salmon records it as abounding in heaths and rabbit war- 

 rens in the neighbourhood of Thetford, to which it an- 

 nually resorts for the purpose of nidification. 4 



4<A, The turtle-dove, C. turlur,hinn., a small and delicate 

 species, unknown in " bleak Caledonia," but a constant 

 summer bird in Kent, and other counties of the south of 



1 British Birds, vol. i. p. 249. 8 Naturalist's Library, vol. v. p. 88. 



3 For the domestic breeds, see Temminck's Hist. Nat. Gin. des Pigeons et des Gallinacics, MM. Boitard and Corbie's Monographici 

 des Pigeons Domestiques, the Pigeon Fancier, and other works. 

 * Magazine of Natural History, vol- »x. p. 520. 



