Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/229

216 While some naturalists, following Linnæus, have considered the great group of birds well known under the names of Pigeons and Doves, as constituting a Family of the extensive Passerine Order, and others, with the illustrious Cuvier, have placed them in that of the Gallinaceous or Poultry-like birds,—others, of equally high consideration, prefer to elevate them to the rank of an Order of themselves. Like the Passeres in general, the Pigeons associate in pairs at the season of courtship, the male and female working conjointly to form the nest, taking their turns in the wearying labours of incubation, and participating in the care of the young; the latter, also, are hatched blind and naked, are fed in the nest until they are fledged, and are sustained by the parents even some time after they have quitted it, having no power to feed themselves.

On the other hand, they differ from the Passeres in their mode of drinking, and of feeding their young, in the character of their plumage, in the singular tenderness of their courtship, and in the hollow and inward character of their voice.

With the Gallinaceous tribes they have also many points in common. In the peculiarities of their internal anatomy they are closely assimilated