PIGEON HOUSE 



6151 



PIGMENT 



Pigeon House. Building to 

 accommodate pigeons, known also 

 as a columbarium. In the Middle 

 Ages nearly every castle, manor 

 house, and monastery had its 

 detached building with nests for 

 pigeons, these birds being a 

 favourite article of food, and their 

 culture inexpensive to the owners, 

 inasmuch as they preyed on the 

 fields of the tenants. The pigeon 

 house was usually a round tower, 

 with an opening at the apex of its 

 conical roof, protected by an upper 

 roof, through which the birds could 

 come and go. Inside the walls were 

 pitted with small recesses for the 

 nests. In the centre was a revolv- 

 ing post with horizontal arms ex- 

 tending almost to the wall, and 

 at the ends of these arms was fixed 

 a vertical ladder, by means of which 

 access could be had to the nests. 



Pigeon Post. Mail service 

 carried on by trained homing 

 pigeons. This method of transmit- 

 ting news has frequently been em- 

 ployed in war-time, particularly 

 in attempts to maintain communi- 

 cation between the defenders of a 

 besieged town, e.g. Paris, 1870-71, 

 and their friends outside. It is also 

 used for naval purposes in emerg 



Carlo. The competitions, in 

 which experts from many countries 

 took part, were held on a lawn 

 situated below the terrace of the 

 Casino. The birds, whose tail 

 feathers were cut as a preliminary, 

 were let loose from dark traps, and 

 driven up into the blazing sun- 

 light for the shooters 



Pigeon Post employed by the British Army in the Great 



War. 1. Dispatch rider with pigeon basket. 2. Message 



being removed from clip attached to bird's leg. 



3. Pigeon loft behind the lines 



ency, and by the airmen on sea- 

 patrol work in case of a forced 

 landing at sea, etc. The message, 

 written in cipher in small compass, 

 is rolled in a quill, which is attached 

 to the bird. During the Great War 

 the British and French maintained 

 an excellent pigeon service on the 

 west front. The French em- 

 ployed pigeons almost from the 

 start, and the British first sent 

 over pigeons to France in March, 

 1916. Similar services were estab- 

 lished at Salonica, and in Egypt 

 and Mesopotamia. 



Pigeon Shooting. Shooting of 

 practically tame pigeons released 

 from traps. The place where 

 pigeon shooting was most culti- 

 vated was, until recently, Monte 



Following on a 

 campaign started 

 in The Times, hi 

 1921, by H. W. 

 Massingham, and 

 supported by Sir 

 Frederick Treves 

 and others, and 

 by the editorial 

 columns, public 

 opinion was 

 moved against 

 the cruelty in- 

 volved in pigeon 

 shooting, and the 

 prince of Monaco 

 exerted his in- 

 fluence against 

 Orders were given 

 by the Casino authorities that in 

 future mechanical clay birds were 

 to be used. This campaign drew 

 public attention to the competitions 

 carried out in Great Britain under 

 rules drawn up by the National 

 Gun Club. The practice was pro- 

 hibited by the Captive Birds Shoot- 

 ing (Prohibition) Act, 1921. 



Pigment. In animals, the 

 colouring matter in the dermis or 

 epidermis. Brown to black in 

 most mammals and in man, it is 

 found in the cells of the Malpighian 

 layer. The colouring matter of 

 birds is chiefly found in the 

 feathers. In the case of crusta- 

 ceans, many fish, and insects there 

 are special colour-secreting cells. 



the practice. 



Animal pigments consist chiefly 

 of zoomelanin, a black colouring 

 matter insoluble in water, alcohol, 

 acid, or ether ; zooerythrin, a red 

 colouring matter found mainly in 

 the feathers of birds ; and zoo- 

 xanthin, a yellow pigment, also a 

 bird colouring matter. Certain 

 pigments are confined to certain 

 animals, e.g. the turacin pigment 

 of the Musophagidae. Haemoglo- 

 bin, the red colouring matter of 

 blood, and its derivatives are the 

 best known animal colouring 

 matters from a chemical point of 

 view, the great majority of animal 

 pigments being present in such 

 small quantities, though giving a 

 large coloration effect, as to make 

 accurate chemical analysis diffi- 

 cult. Much of the colour of many 

 animals is due to a peculiar absorp- 

 tion of light, and not to pigments. 

 See Colour ; Skin. 



Pigment (Lat. pingere, to 

 paint). Insoluble coloured powder 

 used in painting. The pigments 

 of the ancients were mainly ob- 

 tained from minerals and earths 

 and were comparatively few in 

 number, but they are the basis of 

 most modern colours. Chief among 

 them were ultramarine, derived 

 from lapis lazuli ; yellow, from 

 ochre and sienna earths ; red, from 

 oxide of iron ; green, from terre 

 verte, a silicate of iron, or from 

 powdered malachite ; white, from 

 lime, white lead, or oxide of zinc ; 

 black, from burnt bones or ivory. 



Some, obtained neither from 

 minerals nor earths, achieved fame, 

 e.g. Tyrian purple, derived from a 

 shellfish. The ancient Irish ob- 

 tained a purple from a rock lichen, 

 which they used for dyeing stuffs, 

 and possibly for illuminating MSS. 

 Sepia is derived from the cuttlefish. 

 The pigments of the ancients were 

 used with but little modification up 

 to the 16th century. 



The principal modern pigments 

 are : Prussian blue, discovered in 

 the 18th century, composed of 

 ferrocyanide of iron and potassium, 

 with the Antwerp, Paris, and 

 Chinese blues as its derivatives ; 

 alizarin reds, obtained from coal 

 tar, which are imitations of the old 

 crimson and madder lakes ; Prus- 

 sian brown, which is Prussian blue 

 calcined ; emerald green, prepared 

 from copper, arsenic, and acetic 

 acid ; a bluish green called oxide 

 of chromium, of which a popular 

 form is the French vert de Guignet ; 

 various cadmium yellows, pre- 

 pared from sulphide of cadmium ; 

 chrome yellows, from chromates of 

 lead ; cerulean blue, of which the 

 best variety is a stannate of cobalt ; 

 French ultramarine, which is com- 

 posed of the alumina, soda, silica, 

 and sulphur contained in lapis 



