368 ZOOLOGY. 
able on account of its plumage brarbiee a spice-like flavor. One genus of 
this group (Ptilonopus) contains several species found in the islands of the 
Pacific, which have very fine green and red plumage, and are amongst the 
most handsome of the pigeons. 
Sub-fam. 2. Columbine, or Pigeons. Bill moderate, slender, base covered 
with a tumid skin; wings moderate, pointed; tail various, generally ample 
and truncate; tarsi short, feet robust. Size various. Nome 
This assemblage contains all the familiar birds of Europe and North 
America usually known by the names of pigeons and doves, as well as — 
many others only known to inhabit the wilds of Asia and Africa. The 
European species are the best known, one of which is the original of the 
domestic pigeon. It is the rock pigeon, Columba livia (pl. 96, fig. 12), a 
bird common in many parts of Europe, living and rearing its young in the 
holes or fissures of rocks. It is abundant in many places on the coasts of 
England and Scotland. Its manners are represented as very similar to 
those of the domesticated pigeon; when in search of food it walks with 
facility, and has the same manners and gestures during courtship as may 
be observed in the common bird of the city. The rock dove has the entire 
plumage plain, dark-lead color, with a white space on its back. All the 
pigeons known as tumblers, croppers, carriers, fantails, and many others, 
are considered as being derived from this one species. . 
The blue-backed dove, C. @nas ( pl. 96, fig. 18), is a species nearly allied 
to the preceding. The ringdove (C. palumbus) is the largest of the 
European species. It has never been domesticated. 
One of the most elegant as well as favorite European species is the 
turtle-dove, C. turtur (pl. 96, fig. 15). It is a plain little bird with greyish- 
blue plumage, spending the summer in central and southern Europe, and 
migrating southwards in the autumn. It lives in the woods, and its notes in 
the spring are peculiarly sweet.and plaintive. 
Several North American pigeons belong here, the largest of which are 
several species found in the Rocky Mountains and the western territory of 
the United States. But there is no species so universally known, nor 
which appears in such numbers, as the passenger pigeon or wild pigeon 
_(Ectopistes migratorius), a bird which is distributed throughout the United 
States. It is a very graceful and handsome plumaged bird, with dark lead- 
colored plumage above and reddish beneath the body. 
“The multitudes of wild pigeons,” says Audubon, “in our woods are 
astonishing. In the autumn of 1813 I left my house at Henderson, on the 
banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. A few miles beyond Har- 
densburgh I observed the pigeons flying in greater numbers than I though* 
I had ever seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks 
that might pass within the reach of my vision, I dismounted, and found 
that 163 flocks passed in twenty-one minutes. I travelled on, and still met 
more the further I proceeded. The air was literally filled with pigeons, the 
light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse, and the continued buzz of 
wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose.” 
Another and great favorite is the Carolina or turtle-dove (. carolt- 
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