Doves and pigeons constitute the animal family Columbidae and the order Columbiformes, which includes about 42 genera and 310 species.
The distinction between “doves” and “pigeons” in English is not consistent, and does not exist in most other languages. Back in the 1970s my attempts at mounting two species nearly had me at the brink of giving up taxidermy. Those subjects were a 13-foot alligator and a mourning dove. I finally succeeded mounting the 13-foot gator, but the dove… well, I finally gave up after losing nearly half of the feathers in a disastrous attempt. It was years later when I finally mounted a dove I could be proud of by starting with a perfect specimen that needed no cleaning or washing, and by cheating in some of the skinning process and relying on injection preservatives.
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