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that are domestic in the highest sense, all other species must 

 be confined. 



The Pigeons are a large and very peculiar group of birds, 

 forty-four genera, and about three hundred and sixty species 

 are known, out of this number but one is domestic in the 

 highest sense, and one other is the well known Barbary 

 Dove. 



The common Pigeon is without doubt descended from 

 the Rock Dove, a bird inhabiting cliffs and frequenting the 

 same spot for life, this quality has been the cause of its early 

 domestication, nearly all other Pigeons are migratory, or at 

 least wandering in their habits. 



The common Pigeon is tame, but shows very little attach- 

 ment to persons, no doubt this tameness has been a further 

 element in the domestication of the bird, the habits of some 

 of the other species are very wild. My brother bred, in con- 

 finement, two young of the allied Stock Dove, but when nearly 

 grown up they killed themselves by their endeavours to escape. 

 A naturalist of considerable experience tells me that, in his 

 experience, the young of wild birds, bred in confinement, aie 

 wilder than their tamed parents. 



I do not regard the Pigeon as valuable food ; the young, 

 unlike the true food birds, are produced blind and naked, 

 and the taste of the flesh is to me repulsive, indeed I never 

 met with a person who was really fond of eating pigeons. 



The eating of such birds as you see exposed for sale in 

 Continental markets, for instance swallows, wrens, and 

 robins, is on a par with eating pigeons, it is the cooking only 

 that makes them tolerable, as is also the case with the most 

 vulgar dish which appears, I blush to say, on English dinner 

 tables, " larks," those sweet songsters. 



Persons who eat Larks are as bad as Heliogabalus who 

 had served up Nightingale's tongues. 



The Ring or Barbary Dove is entirely a cage bird, 

 although I have seen them released during summer when 

 they had young, but if left at liberty when the period of 

 migration arrived they would have been lost. 



