NATURAL HISTORY 
OF 
GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 
COLUMBID^ OR PIGEONS. 
The Pigeons, or family of the Columbidse, which 
furnish the materials for the present volume, are now, 
in accordance with their true affinities, admitted into 
the order of the Rasores, or Gallinaceous Birds, of 
which they form one of the five great groups or 
divisions, the other four being represented by the 
Pavonidse, Tetraonidis, Struthionidse, and Cracidm. 
In this Order, they constitute what is termed an 
Aberrant family (considering the Pavonidse and Te- 
traonidae as the typical groups); and, fi-om the affi- 
nity that several of the members composing it, she w 
to the Insessores or Perching Birds, they become the 
medium by which the necessary connexion between 
the Rasorial and Insessorial orders is supported. 
Such, indeed, appears to have been nearly the view 
taken of this interesting group by the earlier syste- 
matists, whose classification was not always conduct- 
ed on those philosophical principles which guide 
