ORDER NINTH. 
PIGEON TRIBE. (Columbini, lllig., &c.) 
The bill of moderate size, compressed, vaulted, tur- 
gid towards the tip, which is more or less curved ; the 
base of the upper mandible covered with a soft skin, pro- 
tuberant at its base, in which the nostrils are situated. 
Nostrils medial, longitudinal. Tongue acute, entire. 
Feet short and rather robust, the tarsi reticulated ; toes 
divided. Wings moderate. Tail of 12 or 14 feathers. 
— The female generally similar in plumage to the 
male. The young differ considerably previous to the 
first moult, which is annual. 
The birds of this order, in their mild and familiar 
manners, have a near relation with the Gallinaceous or- 
der following. They are gregarious, living in thick for- 
ests, or on high buildings. Their food, consisting of grain 
and seeds, rarely of insects, undergoes a preparatory mace- 
ration in the crop, before passing into the stomach, and 
with the same kind of prepared and disgorged nutriment 
they feed their young, which only quit the nest when in 
a condition to fly. They generally build in forests, or in 
the clefts of rocks, ruins, or hollow trees, and often make 
a loose and shallow nest of small twigs, roomy enough to 
accommodate both sexes ; they lay generally 2 eggs, sever- 
al times in a year, and though so remarkably gregarious, 
after the termination of the breeding season, they are 
