PIGEON. 



447 



ought to be favoured birds with the inhabitants. 

 About the month of May they retire farther into the 

 woods ; though some remain and build in holes of 

 the fruit trees. The eggs are five in number and pure 

 white ; the body is nine inches in length, and fifteen 

 in the stretch of the wings. The fore part of the head 

 is black, and the nape scarlet ; a black line passes 

 across the eye, and increases in breadth as it pro- 

 ceeds toward the back, where the whole is black ex- 

 cept a broad lateral stripe of white. The feathers 

 on this part consist of small shafts like hairs, with- 

 out any webs to them ; and it is on this account that 

 the bird is called hairy. There are also hair-like 

 feathers of considerable length at the bases of both 

 mandibles. The wings are black, variously spotted 

 with white ; and the tail is black in the middle and 

 white at the edges. All the under parts are 

 white. The female has no red on the head j and 

 the under part is mottled with brownish. 



This is understood to be a discursive bird, at least 

 to a considerable extent ; for a straggling specimen or 

 two of it are reported to have made their appearance 

 in England ; and either it, or a species very similar, 

 has been found in the eastern parts of Siberia. 

 That an American woodpecker should find its way 

 .to Siberia is by no means unlikely, because the dis- 

 tance of the two continents is but small. Coining 

 to England is, however, a different matter ; and it is 

 a known habit of woodpeckers never to carry on 

 their migrations to any very great extent, or by long 

 flights ; their style of flying is very ill adapted for 

 such a purpose. They leap through the air, ascend- 

 ing, and then descending a considerable way at each 

 leap ; and flying in this manner is of course far more 

 fatiguing than smooth flight, in which no lifting of 

 the centre of gravity is required. The leaping flight 

 of the woodpeckers is well adapted to their general 

 action in the wood, as their movements on the wing 

 there consists chiefly of ascents and descents. We 

 believe too that few or no instances have ever oc- 

 curred of the woodpecker being seen flying higher 

 than the tops of the trees, and very seldom as high. 

 Long migrations are always made by lofty flights, 

 where the birds are above the disturbances of the 

 lower atmosphere, and get the advantage of those 

 general currents of the upper air which assist them 

 so much in their migrations. We are not of course 

 disposed to question the authorities which mention 

 the appearance of these birds in England ; but it is 

 rather a puzzling problem in animal mechanics to 

 ascertain in what manner they performed their 

 voyage. 



-Downy Wood-pecker (P. pvftescens). This species 

 is very like the last-mentioned one in the markings of 

 its colours, so like, indeed, that a description of them is 

 hardly necessary. It is, however, much smaller, being 

 only six inches and a half long, and about a foot in 

 the stretch of the wings ; but its diminutive size does 

 not lessen its usefulness in the woods, and especially 

 injhe orchards. 



This little woodpecker is a very diligent labourer 

 in the last of these, and he goes about his work in a 

 much more scientific manner than the larger ones. 

 He takes the circumference of the tree in circles, 

 working gradually round, and shifting a little higher 

 after he has completed one circle. In this, however, 

 he does not " girdle the trees," as it is called in 

 America, but merely punches little holes about an 

 inch or an inch and a half apart. These holes do no 



injury to the tree, but rather, by reducing the action 

 of the stem, tend to make it more productive of fruit. 

 This is not the special labour of the woodpecker ; 

 for he takes an insect, of some kind or other, in some 

 stage of its growth, out of each of these little holes. 

 Had these insects remained, the tree would have 

 been very speedily destroyed. But the other effect 

 is perfectly consistent with the mode in which fruit- 

 trees are kept in a vigorous state of production by 

 skilful gardeners. The natural action of even a fruit- 

 tree is principally in the promoting of its own vege- 

 tation ; and hence, in order to increase the produc- 

 tion of fruit, it becomes necessary to lessen not only 

 the production of wood, but the tendency to produce 

 it ; and this is very frequently done by removing 

 portions of the bark. 



There are still several species of North American 

 woodpeckers remaining unnoticed, and there are 

 many species in South America. Enough, however, 

 has been given as a specimen of those of the north, 

 and we have endeavoured to give it with reference to 

 their uses both in the forest and the orchard. The 

 larger ones are chiefly met with in the first of these 

 situations ; and there is no doubt that, had it not been 

 for them, the forests of many parts of North America 

 would ere now have been gone. Nor are the small 

 ones of less value in the orchard and about the farm- 

 house. 



Of the manners of the South American ones, or 

 the precise effect which they have upon the forests 

 there, we know little. As the trees are different, the 

 labours of the birds must be different ; and they have 

 many more assistants than their northern congeners. 



There remain two genera of small birds, most of 

 which have been, at one time or other, confounded 

 with the woodpeckers. See the articles PICUCULI 

 and PICUMNUS. 



PIGEON (Columba, or rather perhaps Columbidce, 

 The Pigeon family). The pigeon family, or COLUM- 

 BiDjE, as we shall style them when we speak of them 

 in general terms, are one of the most numerous, the 

 most widely distributed, and in some respects the 

 most interesting families of the feathered race. It is 

 true that very many of them levy very extensive 

 contributions upon the products of human labour, and 

 none of them can be said to perform any very import- 

 ant service in return. They may be considered as 

 among the greatest consumers of the fruits of the 

 earth. They are all exclusively, or nearly so, vege- 

 table feeders ; all tribes of them are voracious feeders ; 

 and many of them congregate in flocks which are 

 perfectly innumerable. It is true that the flesh of 

 very many of them is good, rather abundant in 

 quantity for the size of the birds, and somewhat racy 

 in the flavour, though by some reckoned too stimu- 

 lant for being healthy. 



Notwithstanding their numbers, their general dis- 

 tribution, their beauty, and the proverbial kindness of 

 their dispositions, which have been handed down 

 from very remote antiquity, only one out of a great 

 number of species, and indeed of genera, has yet been 

 brought into subjection by man ; and even this one 

 is lodged and fed rather than domesticated. This 

 one is the common pigeon-house pigeon, known as 

 the rock-pigeon when in the wild state, and in that 

 state abundant in several places of the cliffy and 

 caverned shores of the British islands. This one has 

 indeed broken down into a great number of varieties, 

 differing much from each other in appearance, and 



