311 
The Cockle-bur* 
Xanthium Strumarium, Willd ., Sp. PL, vol. iv. p. 373. Pursk, Flor. Amer. vol. ii 
p. 581. Smith , Engl. FI., vol. iv. p. 136.— MoNoeciA Pentandria, Linn. — 
CORYMBIFER.E, Juss. 
Root fibrous ; stem solitary, erect, branched, from three to six feet high, 
furrowed, downy ; leaves on long petioles, cordate, lobed, serrate, scabrous, 
three-nerved at the base ; clusters axillar, of four or five fertile, and one or 
two barren flowers, which are green ; nuts densely armed, and furnished 
with two beaks. 
FAMILY XXIX.— COLUMBINES. PIGEONS. 
Bill short, soft for half its length, horny toward the end ; upper mandible 
with a tumid fleshy covering at the base, its dorsal line straight, toward the 
end convex and deflected, the tip narrow, but obtuse ; lower mandible at its 
base wider than the upper, its sides elastic and slender, the angle long and 
obtuse, the dorsal line short and convex, the tip obtuse. Nostrils linear in 
the lower and fore part of the nasal membrane. Head small, oblong ; neck 
of moderate length; body rather full. Feet short; tarsus partially feathered, 
scutellate, or scaly ; toes four, on the same level, broad beneath, marginate ; 
the first short, the lateral nearly equal, all scutellate above. Claws mode- 
rate, arched, compressed, rather blunt. Plumage generally compact, the 
feathers with thick spongy shaft, and destitute of plumule. Wings and tail 
various. Tongue rather broad at the base, toward the end narrow, horny, 
induplicate, pointed; oesophagus very wide, enlarged into an enormous crop; 
stomach a very large and strong gizzard, placed obliquely, its lateral mus- 
cles exceedingly thick, the lower prominent, the tendons very large, the 
epithelium dense, with longitudinal broad rugas, and two opposite grinding 
surfaces ; intestine long, of moderate width ; coeca very small ; cloaca ob- 
long. Trachea simple, flattened, with a single pair of inferior laryngeal 
muscles. Nest flat, rudely constructed. Eggs two, elliptical, white. 
