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ORDER IV. COLUMBINE. 



The birds of this order have a weak flender bill, ftraight at the bafe, with a foft protu- 

 berant fubftance in which the noftrils are lodged. The tongue is entire : the legs are 

 fhort and red : the toes divided to the origin. Their flight is fwift and diftant : their 

 pace, walking. They have a peculiar plaintive note, or cooing. The male inflates or 

 fwells up his breaft in courtfhip. The female lays but two eggs at a time. The male 

 and female fit alternately, and feed their young, ejecting the meat out of their ftomachs 

 into the mouths of the neftlings. They feed on grain and feeds. The neft is ample, 

 and made in trees, or holes of rocks, or walls. 



GENUS I. PIGEON. 



As this is the only genus of the order, it is unneceffary to repeat the characters. 



species i. stock pigeon. 

 pi; 129. 



Columba CEnas. Lin. Syji. I. p. 279. 

 Le Pigeon fauvage. Brif. Orn. I. p. 86. 



The length of this bird is fourteen inches. The bill of a pale red colour : the head 

 am coloured : the hind part and fides of the neck of a green gold colour gloffed with cop- 

 per : the forepart of the neck afh colour : back and wings darker afh : lower part of the 

 back and rump the fame, but paler : lower part of the neck and bread dafhed with pur- 

 plifh or red wine colour: thence to the vent pale afh colour: the four or five outmoft 

 quill feathers are black, with white edges; the reft are black at the upper part, and afh 

 coloured at the lower : on each wing are two black fpots : the tail is black at the end, and 

 has fometimes a bar of the fame colour acrofs the middle ; its two outer feathers are white 

 from the bafe to the middle on the outer edge. The fexes do not differ. 



This fpecies makes its neft of a few twigs or fticks loofely put together, for the raoft 

 part in the hollows of trees, and breeds commonly twice in the year. The eggs are, as 

 in all the known fpecies, white, and fcarcely ever more than two in number, one of which 

 ufually produces a male, the other a female. Another pigeon, fimilar to this, is faid to 

 frequent rocks and cliffs, differing not materially, except that the rump is white : but 

 whether it be a diftincT: fpecies or not I fhall not pretend to determine. It is from one or 

 ther of thefe, that all the varieties of dove-houfe pigeons, and fome fancy ones, have 

 been derived. 



For the egg, fee PI. XXIX. Fig. 2. 



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