The Qame Birds and Wild Fowl 



OF 



The British Islands. 



ORDER COLUMBIFORMES.— THE PIGEONS. 



THE Pigeons form a homogeneous, well-defined, and important group of 

 birds, closely allied to the Game Birds {Gallifobmes) — through the 

 Sand-Grouse (Pediophili) — and to the Plovers {Ghabadbijeobmes). Their 

 sternum, which varies in shape, generally contains two notches on each side of the 

 posterior margin, the interior pair being small, the exterior pair wide and deep. 

 In the modification of their cranial bones they are schizognathous, whilst their 

 nostrils are schizorhinal. In their pterylosis, myology, and digestive organs they 

 show considerable aflinity with the Plovers and the Game Birds. 



The external characteristics of the Pigeons are their somewhat Plover-like 

 bill, enlarged at the tip and covered at the base with soft skin, in which are 

 placed the nostrils, partly concealed by an incumbent valve ; their small hind toe ; 

 and their dense, compact plumage. The oil gland is nude or absent. The contour 

 feathers are without an aftershaf t, or only possess a rudimentary one. The primary 

 quills are eleven in number, the fifth secondary is absent ; but the rectrices are 

 variable in this respect (from twelve to twenty). The Pigeons are, so far as is 

 known, double-moulted; the young are hatched blind, but clothed with thin, 

 yellowish down. 



About 470 species of Pigeons are known. Count Salvadori, the most recent 

 monographer of the Columbiformes, has divided the existing species of Pigeons 

 into five families, of which two only are represented in the British Islands. The 

 Pigeons are cosmopolitan in their distribution with the exception of the Polar 

 regions, but are probably most abundant in the Australian region. 

 1 



