( 39 ) 

 ^he Common Dove Houfe^ or Wild Pigeon. 



Numb. XLII. 



* I ' HIS Pigeon weighed thirteen Ounces ; was in length from the Bill 

 -■- to the Tail end thirteen Inches, in breadth twenty fix. 



Its Bill was flender, fharp-pointed and indifferently long, about the 

 Noftrils foft and whitifti, by the afperlion of a kind of furfuraceous Sub- 

 ftarnce, elfe dusky : The Tongue neither hard, nor cloven, but fharp and 

 foft; the Irides of the Eyes red, the Legs and Feet red, the Claws black. 



The Head was of a pale blew j the Neck as it was diverfely objeded 

 to the Light, did exhibit to the Beholder various and fhining Colours. 

 The Crop was reddifh, the reft of the Breafl: and Belly afli coloured; 

 the Back beneath and a little above the Rump vi'as white, (which is a Note 

 common to moft Wild Pigeons) about the Shoulders cinereous, elfe 

 black, yet with feme Mixture of cinereous. The number of plume 

 Feathers in each Wing was about twenty three or twenty four, of thefe 

 the outmoft were dusky, of the reft as much as was expofed to fight 

 black, what was covered with incumbent Feathers cinereous. The co- 

 vert Feathers of the ten firft Remiges were of a dark cinereous; the reft 

 of the covert Feathers (almoft to the Body) dark, the tips and exterior Webs,. 

 were cinereous, the interior black, the covert Feathers of the under fide 

 of the Wings purely white. 



The Tail was made up of twelve Feathers, four Inches and a half 

 long, the middlemoft being fomewhat longer than the extremes; the 

 tips of all were black, the reft wholly cinereous. 



it had a great Craw full of Grumil Seed. The blind Guts very fhort, 

 fcarce exceeding a quarter of an Inch ; it hath (as we faid of Pigeons 

 in general) no Gall Bladder, and lays but two Eggs at a time; thofe 

 Kinds vary much in Colour. There are found of the mordinarily milk 

 white. 



n<. 



