r Auk 



306 Townsend, Notes on the Rock Dove. Luily 



NOTES ON THE ROCK DOVE (COLUMBA DOMES TIC A). 1 



BY CHARLES W. TOWNSEND, M.D. 



The two familiar birds of city streets are the European House 

 Sparrow, or English Sparrow as it is generally called, and the Rock 

 Dove, commonly known as Pigeon. Both are equally fearless in 

 the presence of man and all his works, and both are equally de- 

 pendent on their own exertions for a living, although both are fed 

 more or less irregularly by the passer-by, chiefly for the pleasure 

 afforded by the sight of the crowding, eager birds. The English 

 Sparrow is properly included in most bird lists as an introduced 

 species. The Pigeon, however, is seldom mentioned, because here 

 it is domesticated or was originally introduced in this state and has 

 since become feral. 2 In most cities both here and in Europe it has 

 reverted in plumage and habits to the wild state of its ancestor, the 

 Rock Dove, with the exception that instead of breeding in holes 

 and fissures of rocky cliffs, it now breeds in similar situations on 

 buildings in cities. In small towns and villages the Pigeons are 

 generally owned and fed by individuals, and live in dovecotes. A 

 study of the habits of the unconfined bird as seen in cities in this 

 country, and a comparison of its habits with those of its feral 

 progenitors seems worth while. I commend it to ornithologists 

 living in cities who lament that they have no birds to study. 



That the various fancy races or domesticated forms of the 

 Pigeon, some 200 in all, are descended from one species, the Rock 

 Dove, Columba domestica, is now well recognized, although it was 

 formerly believed that the chief races were of separate lineage. 

 This is not to be wondered at, when we consider the extraordinary 

 diversity shown, not only in external plumage and form, but also 

 in internal structure by those races, some of which, it is believed, 

 date back to prehistoric times. One has but to glance at a pouter, 

 a carrier, a barb, a fan-tail, a turbit, a tumbler or a trumpeter, 



1 Stejneger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. X, 1887, p. 424, has shown that Linne's C. 

 livia is a nomen nudum and that C. domestica of Gmelin must be used. 



2 See, however, O. W. KJuight, Birds of Maine, 1908, p. 208, and G. M. Allen, 

 Fauna of New England, List of Aves. Boston Soc. Nat. His., 1909, p. 226. 



