ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
THE GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE TRUE PIGEONS
(Family Columbidce)
The True Pigeons. —The members of the first subfamily from their arboreal habits may be collectively known as the Tree Pigeons, although the various minor groups are known respectively as Green, Painted, Wart, and Fruit Pigeons.
They number about two hundred and twenty-five species disposed among some thirty-seven genera and three groups (formerly called subfamilies), and .enjoy a very wide but exclusively Old World distribution, being especially abundant in Africa, southeastern Asia, and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, with a few extending to Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.
They may be known from the other members of the suborder by the rather short legs in which the tarsi are generally shorter than the middle toe, and feathered for more than half their length, while the soles of the feet are very broad, each toe having the skin expanded on the sides.
With the exception of two or three genera the tail is composed of fourteen feathers.
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