C0LUMBID2E : PIGEONS. SljS 



16, exceptionally to 20; all the North American have 12, excepting Zenaidura, with 14. The 

 feet show cuusiderable nicxlification when the strictly arboricole are compared with the more 

 terrestrial species; their general character has just been indicated. The gizzard is large and 

 muscular, particularly in tlio species that feed on seeds and other hard fi-uits ; tlie gullet dilates 

 to form a capacious circumscribed crop, divided into lateral halves, or tending to that state. 

 This organ at times secretes a peculiar milky lluid, wiiich, mixed with macerated fcjod, is 

 poured by regurgitation directly into the mouth of the young; thus the fabled "pigeon's milk" 

 has a strong spice of fact, and in this remarkable circumstance we see prol>ably the nearest 

 , approach, among birds, to the characteristic function of mammalia. " The voice of tlie turtle 

 is heard in the land " as a plaintive cooing, so characteristic as to have afforded another name 

 for the family, Gemitores. Pigeons are altricial, psilopaBdic, and monogamous — doubly 

 monogamous, as is said when both sexes incubate and care for the young ; this is a strong 

 trait, compared with tlie priBcocial, ptilopaidic, and often polygamous nature of rasorial birds. 

 They are amorous birds, whose passion generally results in a tender and constant devotion, 

 edifying to contemplate, but is often marked by high irascibility and pugnacity — traits at 

 variance with the amiable meekness which doves are supposed to symliolize. Their blandness 

 is supposed to be due to absence of the gall-ldadder. The nest, as a rule, is a rude, frail, flat 

 structure of twigs ; the eggs are usually two in number, sometimes one, white; when two, 

 supposed to contain the germs of opposite sexes. (For anatomy of a pigeon, see frontispiece.) 



" The entire number of Pigeons known to exist is about 300 ; of these the Malay Archi- 

 pelago already counts 118, while only 38 are found in India, 2.3 in Australia, less than 10 in 

 Africa, and not more than 80 in the whole of America." They focus in the small district of 

 which New G-uinea is the centre, where more than a fourth of the spi'cics occur. Mr. AVallace 

 accounts for this by the absence of fruit-eating forest mammals, such as monkeys and squirrels; 

 and finds in the converse the reason why pigeons are so scarce in the Amazcni valley, and there 

 chiefly represented by species feeding much on the ground and breeding in tlie buslres hiwer 

 than monkeys habitually descend. " In the Malay countries, also, there are no great families 

 of fruit-eating Passeres, and their place seems to be taken by the true fruit-pigecms, which, 

 unchecked by rivals or enemies, often form with the Psittaci the prominent and characteristic 

 features of the Avifauna." {Newton.) 



There are several prominent groups of Pigeons ; but authors are far from agreed up(ju the 

 subdivisions of the family. It is not probable that Garrod's three subfamilies of Cohimhida;, 

 based upon characters of the ambiens, C03ca, gall-bladder, and oil-gland, will not stand without 

 modification, and I cannot adopt his arrangement. Sclater divided tlie suborder C(jJiimha: as 

 above defined into two families, Columbidce and Carpophagidfe, to which he afterwaid added 

 Gouridai, and probably Didunculidce. Bonaparte made five families, Diduncidida , TreroiiidcB, 

 Columbidm, Calcenadidce, and Gouridce three of them upon single genera), with twelve sub- 

 families. Some of the leading groups may be thus indicated : — 



1. The extraordinary Tooth-billed Pigeon of the Samoan Islands, Bidunctdus sfrigiros- 

 tris, alone represents a subfamily or family, with its stout, compressed, hooked and tootlied beak, 

 and many other peculiarities. The length of intestine is excessive, being seven feet instead of 

 about two, as usual in Columbidce. The ambiens is present; the oil-gland and ^all-bladder 

 are absent. There are 14 tail-feathers. 



2. The singular genus Goiira, with two New-Guinean species, is outwardly distiuijuished 

 by its immense umbrella-like crest, and possesses anatomical peculiarities which entitle it to 

 stand alone as type of a subfamily or family. The tarsi are reticulate ; there are 16 rectrices • 

 cceca, gall-bladder, oil-gland, and ambiens muscle are all wanting ; the intestines are four or 

 five feet long. 



3. The single genus and species, Calwnas nicobarica, has a very tumid bill, and acu- 

 minate, lengthened, pendulous feathers of the neck ; but there are only 12 rectrices as in 



