CHAPTER XXXIV 



THE DOMESTIC PIGEON 



A hundred wings are dropt as soft as one. 

 Now ye are lighted — lovely to my sight 

 The fearful circle of your gentle flight, 

 Rapid and mute, and drawing homeward soon ; 

 And then the sober chiding of your tone 

 As there ye sit from your own roof arraigning 

 My trespass on your haunts, so boldly done, 

 Sounds like a solemn and a just complaining ! 



Charles Tennyson Turner, On Startling Some Pigeons 



Habitat and Distribution. The domestic pigeon is known 

 under many varieties, all of which, it is now believed, 

 have been bred by artificial selection from the rock dove 

 (Colum'ba liv'ia, Fig. 193), a bird widely distributed through- 

 out the European north-temperate realm. In its wild state 

 the rock dove nests in the crevices of rocks, usually along 

 seacoasts. The different domesticated varieties (Fig. 97) 

 have been still more widely scattered over the earth 

 through man's influence. 



External Structure. In the pigeon we can distinguish a 

 head, neck, trunk, and tail. All over the body the skin is 

 closely set with feathers. There are two pairs of appendages : 

 the anterior, or wings, are used for flight, and the posterior, 

 or legs, for support. The wings consist of an upper arm, 

 forearm, and hand, as in the amphibians and reptiles, though 

 the digits are joined together and reduced in number 

 (Fig. 195). The legs also show divisions similar to the hind 

 legs of amphibians and reptiles ; that is, thigh, lower leg, and 

 foot, the latter being covered with scales and ending in four 



toes, which bear claws resembling those of the lizard. 



368 



