262 BACKBONED ANIMALS. 
Order VIII. Pigeons (Columba). General Charac- 
teristics—The pigeons (Fig. 296) and doves are charac- 
terized by heavy bodies and short legs. The bill is short, 
straight, and compressed, the nostrils protected by a fleshy 
scale. They live in communities, and are, strictly speak- 
ing, ground-birds. The rock dove is the progenitor of the 
common stock. The ground dove (Chamapelia passerina) 
ranges the United States from Washington to the South 
at! ty, 
Wp 
Fic. 296.—Wood-pigeon on her rude nest. 
Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They attain a length of six 
and a half inches. The general color is a grayish olive 
with a bluish gloss, the bill black with a yellow tip, and 
the iris of the eye orange-red. They congregate in flocks 
of four or five, and nest in low bushes. The Carolina and 
scaly doves are other American forms. 
The passenger pigeon* (LZctopistes migratorius) is a 
* These migrations are, as we shall see in the lemings, squirrels, 
rats, etc., not confined to any special time, but are made to obtain a 
new food-supply. Wilson estimated that a flock contained 2,000,- 
000,000,000 birds, and consumed per day 17,427,000 bushels of corn. 
