PALUMBINJE. 401 



red-brown, and grey predominating, often adorned with a beautiful 

 iridescence or play of colours on the neck, and, in many, with 

 a marked neck spot. They are found over both Continents, more 

 sparingly, perhaps, and with fewer types, in America. 



The Columbidce may be divided according to their general 

 tone of coloring and habits into Lopho lamina. Crested-pigeons ; 

 Palumbinm, Wood-pigeons ; Columbines, Rock-pigeons; Macropy- 

 gina, long-tailed Doves ; and lastly Turturince, true Doves, with 

 perhaps one or more divisions of less extent. 



The Lophol^emiisle, or Crested-pigeons, are composed of a 

 single genus and species, Lopholcemus antarctiaus, a remarkable 

 Australian form, with a double crest, which is very frugivorous, 

 and which was by some formerly arranged with the last family. 



Sub-fam. Palumbin^e, Wood-pigeons. 



Palumbece — Bonap. and Blyth. 



Feet fitted for perching, the tarsus being somewhat shorter, and 

 the feet more arboreal than in the succeeding groups ; tail some- 

 what longer and more rounded. 



The Wood-pigeons or Cushats are more frugivorous and bud- 

 eaters than the ordinary Pigeons and Doves, and, were it not for 

 having only twelve tail-feathers, and a different style of plumage, 

 they might be ranked in the last family. They are peculiar to 

 the Old World, are denizens of woods and forests, and feed partly 

 on trees and "partly on the ground. 



The first two species differ very slightly from the true Cushats, 

 and in a less degree from each other, and have been arranged in 

 two genera ; but as it is impossible to define them apart from each 

 other, I shall retain them, as Blyth does in his Catalogue, under 

 one generic form. That naturalist remarks elsewhere, — "The dis- 

 tinctions upon which this and other named divisions are based 

 are so exceedingly recondite, that definition becomes impossible, 

 and they are intelligible only when examples of the different 

 species are compared and grouped together." 



Gen. Alsocomus, Tickell. 

 Svn. Dendrotreron, in part, Hodgson. 



