92 
Genus VINAGO, — Cvviek. 
In the warm and intertropiral climates of Asia 
and Africa, besides a variety of pigeons, character- 
ized by a form similar to that of our ring-pigeon and 
other European species, groups of this beautiful race 
are met with, differing from them in many particu- 
lars, both as to form, habits, and economy, and con- 
stituting independent genera or divisions in this ex- 
tensive family. Such are the members of the genus 
Vinago, a group which Cuvier first separated from 
the typical pigeons, and of which our first plate, 
representing a common though elegant species, is 
given as an example. The predominating colours 
in all are green and yellow of different intensities, 
contrasted more or less in certain parts with rich 
purple or reddish-brown. The greater wing-coverts 
and secondary quills are also in most of the species 
distinctly margined or edged with a consjtiruous 
line of the brightest yellow, which gives them a 
singular and beautiful effect. In the more essen- 
tial characters, their bill is much stronger and thicker 
than that of the pigeons, the tip or horny part being 
of a very hard substance, much hooked and inflated, 
the nostrils are more exposed, and scarcely exhibit 
any appearance of the swollen or projecting mem- 
