140 



DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 



Chap. V 



Carrier was nearly half an inch longer than in the rock-pigeon. The 

 upper mandible is often slightly arched. The tongue is very long. The 

 development of the carunculated skin or wattle round the eyes, over the 

 nostrils, and on the lower mandible, is prodigious. The eyelids, measured 

 longitudinally, were in some specimens exactly twice as long as in the 



rock-pigeon. The external orifice or furrow of the nostrils was also twice 

 as long. The open mouth in its widest part was in one case '75 of an 

 inch in width, whereas in the rock-pigeon it is only about 4 of an inch. 

 This great width of mouth is shown in the skeleton by the reflexed edges 

 of the ramus of the lower jaw. The head is flat on the summit and narrow 

 between the orbits. The feet are large and coarse ; the length, as mea- 



