204 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



ORDER COLUMByC. 



THE Columbine Birds, or Pigeons, fhoiigti formerly grouped with the Game 

 Birds, are exceedingly well defined, differing in a very marked manner from 

 all other groups. The species are very numerous, probablj"^ approaching four 

 hundred in number, and are found all over the world except in the Arctic regions. 

 The Fruit Pigeons, which are very abundant in the Tropics and Australia, are 

 not found in any part of Europe, and therefore do not call for any description in 

 the present volume. In Great Britain we have four birds belonging to the family 

 Coluvibida ; three of these belong to the genus Columba, namely — ^the Wood-Pigeon, 

 C. palumbus ; the Stock-Dove, C. cenas ; and the Rock Dove, C. livia ; and one 

 migratory species belonging to the genus Turtur — T. co7nmunis — the Turtle-Dove. 

 In some works on British Birds, the Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, has 

 been included, but it is a very rare straggler from North America, and has no 

 claim to be considered as a British bird. The birds of the family are 

 remarkably distinguished by the character of the bill, and the mode of feeding the 

 young, which has been mis-stated by almost every writer. The lower mandible is 

 much broader than the upper towards its base, a formation which has a distinct 

 reference to the habits of the bird. The young are born in an exceedingly 

 immature condition, and are fed for the first few days exclusively on a peculiar 

 secretion from the crops of the parent birds, which is ov^y produced at the period 

 of hatching. This is a soft curdy substance which may be termed " pigeon's milk." 

 It is not, as erroneously stated by Seebohm, semi-digested food, but a distinct 

 secretion, nor is it, as he says, eaten by the young from the open mouth of the 

 parent. When feeding the young bird plunges its beak, which is open, deeply 

 into the mouth of the parent bird, which by a violent muscular effort throws up 



