THE BIRDS OF INDIA, 



VOL. II. PART II. 



Oed. GEMITORES, Pigeons. 



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Syn. Columbce, Latham. 



Bill moderate or short, straight, compressed ; the basal portion 

 weak, and covered with a soft fleshy skin or membrane, in which 

 the nostrils are situated ; the apical portion arched or vaulted, and 

 more or less curved down at the tip ; wings generally long, 

 pointed ; tail variable, usually of twelve or fourteen feathers ; 

 tarsi short and stout; legs feathered to the joint ; toes moderately 

 long ; hind toe on the same plane as the anterior ones. 



There is no order of birds, perhaps, better marked than that of 

 the Pigeons and Doves, and such is the marked physiognomy of 

 these birds, that it does not require an Ornithologist to refer a bird 

 of this order to its proper place ; not more than one species at 

 present existing, which could excite more than a momentary doubt 

 in the mind of any one as to its real affinities. 



The soft and often tumid and bulged base of the bill is smooth 

 in some, scurfy in others, and the nostrils are usually pierced well 

 in front ; the apical portion of the bill varies much, slender and 

 slightly curved in some, thick and much curved in others. The 

 gape is tolerably wide, very wide in one family, and the face and 

 lores are usually well plumed. The eyes are set rather far back, 

 and give a peculiar physiognomy to the birds of this order/ The 

 wings are generally long, and more or less pointed ; in some of the 

 ground Pigeons, only, shorter and more rounded ; and, in many, the 

 first primary quills are notched on their inner webs, as in the Fal- 

 conidce. The tail varies both in length and form, but is usually 

 nearly even, or very slightly rounded, wedge-shaped in a few. It 

 consists of twelve or fourteen feathers in most ; of sixteen in a few ; 

 and it has been stated that there are only ten in one or two. The 



PART II. 3 K 



