COLUMB^: COLUMBINE BIRDS. 
561 
thence straggliug to Mass. and even Maine 5 not authenticated as occuning on the Pacific side, 
but of general distribution in C. and S. Am. 
No one can fail to observe with interest the great difference in the form and general appearance of the 
Turkey Buzzard and Carrion Crow when he compares tliem sitting side by side sunnijig themselves ui)on chimney 
or house-top ; and especially the discrepancy in their mode of flight as they wheel together overhead in endless 
inosculating circles. The Turkey Buzzards look larger as they fly, though really they are lighter weights ; they 
are dingy-brown, with a gray space underneath the wing ; the tail is long ; the fore-border of the wing is bent at 
a salient angle, and there is a corresponding reentrance in its hind outline ; the tips of the longest quills spread 
apart and bend upward ; and one may watch these splendid flyers for hours without perceiving a movement of the 
pinions. Comparing now the Carrion Crows, they are seen to be more thick-set, with less sweep of wing and 
shorter and more rounded tail, beyond which the feet may project; the front edge of the wing is almost straight, 
and the back border sweeps around in a regular curve to meet it at an obtuse point, where the ends of the quills 
are neither spread apart nor bent upward. The birds show almost black instead of brown ; in place of a large gray 
area under the wing, there is a smaller paler gray spot at the point of the wing. And, finally, the Carrion Crows 
flap their wings five or six times in rapid succession, then sail a few moments ; their flight appears heavy, and 
even laborious, beside the stately motion of their relatives. 
OBH. — Cathartes burrovianus Cass., B. N. A., 1858, p. 6 ; Eliot, B. N. A. pi. 36, a doubtful species, is said to 
inhabit Lower California. — From various accounts, it seems probable that the king wilture (Gijparchus papa) 
really occurs on our southern border, but this remains to be determined. (See Bartram, Trav. in Fla., p. 150 ; 
Cass., B. N. A., p. 6 ; Coues, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1866, p. 49 ; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., ii, 1871, p. 313 ; Coues, 
Bull.,Nutt. Club, vi, 1881, p. 248.) 
V. Order COLUMB^: Columbine Birds. 
An essential character of birds typical of this group is found in the structure of the bill, 
which is horny and convex at the tip, somewhat contracted in the continuity, furnished at the 
base with a tumid membrane in which the nostrils open. There are four toes ; three anterior, 
generally cleft to the base, but occasionally with slight webbing; one behind, with few excep- 
tions perfectly insistent or not obviously elevated. The feet are never much lengthened ; the 
tarsus is commonly shorter than the toes, either scutellate or extensively feathered, reticulate 
on the sides and behind, the envelope rather membranous than corneous. (One N. Am. genus, 
Starnoenas, has entirely reticulate tarsus and elevated hallux.) On the whole, the feet are inses- 
sorial, not rasorial ; the habit is arboreal, not terrestrial ; but there are many ground pigeons, 
some quite fowl-like ; and progression is always gradient, never saltatory. The wings and tail 
do not afford ordinal characters; but it maybe remarked that the rectrices are usually (not 
always) 12 or 14 instead of the higher numbers usual in gallinaceous birds; and that the wings 
are usually long and flat, not short and vaulted. The plumage is destitute of aftershafts (qu. 
Indus'^, small aftershafts in Pterocletes'^). The syrinx has one pair of intrinsic muscles, if any 
(none in Pterocletes). The oil-gland is nude, when present (small in Treron, etc.; wanting in 
Goura, Starnoenas). The gall-bladder is generally absent (present exceptionally in some true 
Pigeons). The coeca are absent; or present, but small. There are two carotids. The gizzard 
is muscular. There are many good osteological characters. The palate is schizognathous. 
The nasal bones are schizorhinal. The sternum is doubly notched, or notched and fenestrate, 
on each side ; the pectoral ridge of the humerus is salient and acute, and does not receive the 
insertion of the second pectoral muscle. The ambiens muscle is normally present, the birds 
being unquestionably homalogonatous ; but is sometimes lost ; the femoro-caudal, accessory 
femoro-caudal, semitendinosus, and accessory semitendinosus are present ; the fourth glutseal 
muscle, which in other schizorhinal birds covers the femur-head, is undeveloped (Garrod). 
Some ornithologists, like Liljeborg, enlarge the Columbine order, under name of Pullas- 
tr(B, to receive the American Curassows, {Cracidce — -see beyond) and the Old World Big-feet 
or Mound-birds (Megapodidee) ; mainly on account, it would appear, of the low position of 
the hallux in these families. But the balance of characters favors their reference to the galli- 
naceous series, where they are relegated by Huxley. While there is no question that the 
Columbine birds are very closely related to the Galline, in fact inosculating therewith, it 
36 
