84 
NATURAL HISTORY OF 
the natuialisls of the present day, as we find the 
Coluinbidte arranged alternately among the Rasorial 
and Gallinaceous Birds, or sometimes, as an inter- 
mediate order, separate from both. An investiga- 
tion of their habits and economy, as well as their 
anatomy, both external and internal, shewing the 
close approximation that some species make to the 
typical Itasores, is, however, sufficient to prove that 
their affinity to the true Gallinaceous Birds is much 
stronger than that which connects them with the 
Insessores, though the latter is sufficiently so to 
support the requisite connexion between the two 
Orders. 
Till of late years, the Pigeons appear to have been 
a tribe unaccountably neglected ; and, in all the W’ril- 
ings of the earlier authors, they are classed under 
one generic head (Columba), without any attempt 
to distinguish groups, or to notice the differences of 
character and form exhibited by various species, and 
particularly apparent in such as approach nearest to 
the true Gallinse. Even at the present day, much 
remains to be done, as not only do many of the 
minor groups remain uiicharacterized, but even the 
greater Divisions or Subfamilies, as they are termed, 
ure neither precisely nor satisfactorily established. 
In the history of the Pigeons and Gallinaceous 
Birds, published by M. Temminck some years ago, 
that leai’ned author divided the former into three 
sections ; the first restricted to the Strong-billed 
Arboreal Pigeons, or those -species now constituting 
