448 



PIGEON. 



called by different names, one of which at least, the 

 carrier-pigeon, is employed in bearing messages to 

 places very remote from each other. It is doubtful, 

 however, whether, under any circumstances, the keep- 

 ing- of pigeons is a matter of economy ; but that cir- 

 cumstance does not lessen their interest in the esti- 

 mation of the naturalist who wishes to study them in 

 their free state ; and the domesticated one, including 

 all its varieties, is a mere drop in the bucket as com- 

 pared with those which are still to be found in wild 

 nature. 



With the exception of the polar zones, pigeons are 

 found not only on every broad land, in all torrid and 

 temperate latitudes, but in the remote isles of the 

 sea. With the exception of comparatively a few, and 

 these mostly in countries which hardly know any 

 winters cold, the whole of the family are birds of 

 powerful wing, capable of remaining long in the air 

 at a time, and thus continuing their flight over long 

 distances. 



In such countries as Europe, where the soil is in 

 pretty general cultivation, and the winter is compa- 

 ratively severe, they are not very numerous. In 

 North America they are much more so in individuals, 

 if not absolutely in species ; and yet, latitude for lati- 

 tude, the winters of North America are far more 

 severe than those of Europe. But, in North Ame- 

 rica, they migrate with the seasons far more than 

 they do in Europe. In Europe, too, the larger seeds 

 of faded plants, and the small fruits, upon which 

 pigeons are fond of feeding, are much less abundant 

 than in America. In the former part of the world 

 the greater part of the harvest of the year is gathered 

 in by man, or by animals in which Jie takes an 

 interest ; while in America, so comparatively small 

 an extent of the surface is peopled and cultivated, 

 that the far greater part of the harvest of the year is 

 left to be gathered in by the children of wild nature. 

 In South America, and the intermediate islands, there 

 are also many species ; and the same is the case in 

 Africa ; though in neither of those countries does any 

 one species appear to be so abundant in numbers as 

 some of those in North America. A new character, 

 however, begins to appear in some of them. The 

 pigeons of the north, though many, indeed most of 

 them, feed upon the ground, are all birds of powerful 

 wing, and capable of shifting their localities it the 

 state of the season shall deprive them of food. 

 Pigeons of this character are also to be found in the 

 southern parts of America and in Africa; but in 

 these places there are others much less formed for 

 flight, and therefore mudi more habitually upon the 

 ground. 



New Holland and the isles of the Pacific, including 

 among those New Guinea and the Sunda Islands, 

 and a portion at least of the south-east of Asia, might 

 be considered as the grand head-quarters of the pigeons ; 

 and in those regions some of them are far more gay 

 in their plumage, elegant in their forms, and splendid 

 in all their characters, than in almost any other part 

 of the world, though they are everywhere a handsome 

 race of birds. Among those islands they are discur- 

 sive, shifting from region to region with the monsoons, 

 as these bring abou-t at different times a supply of 

 those wild fruits upon which they chiefly subsist. In 

 the same islands and countries too, especially if they 

 are of considerable breadth, there are also pigeons of 

 less powerful flight, and better adapted for walking, 

 which find their food chiefly on the ground, and 



are rarely on the wing, except for low and short 

 flights. 



The Columbldcc were long considered as confined 

 to the pigeons properly so called, and the turtles, or, 

 as they were styled in popular language, doves and 

 turtle doves. But as the birds of new lands began 

 to be examined with attention, and species of forms, 

 colours, and habits, very different from either of these 

 two, began to be added to the collections and mu- 

 seums, the single genus Cohun'oa, to which the new 

 ones were added when they were discovered, began 

 to get cumbrous from its extent, and not very sus- 

 ceptible of correct generic definition, because a short 

 summary of characters could not be so framed as to 

 include the whole. This of course led to successive 

 divisions of them ; first into subgenera, then into 

 genera, and ultimately into subfamilies and genera. 

 The original method of having but one class was 

 certainly imperfect and incorrect ; and it could 

 scarcely have been otherwise, because it could be 

 founded only upon the species then known, and they 

 have proved to be a very small fraction of the entire 

 number. On the other hand, it is highly probable 

 that some of the more recent arrangements have 

 fallen into the opposite extreme. A few years ago 

 there was an excessive, and as one might say an in- 

 ordinate desire to multiply genera, and the same 

 desire remains with many to the present time. Now 

 this is a bar in the way of those who wish to learn 

 natural history. It is desirable that every one, be- 

 ginning with the classes of the animal kingdom, should 

 pursue those classes downward through their orders 

 and families, as far as the genera. Thus far may be 

 regarded as the science of natural history, and as such 

 ought to form part of every liberal education. Doing 

 so, it ought to reach the general structure and habits 

 of all the animals, their adaptations to climates and 

 localities, and their uses in wild nature and to man. 

 But it should stop there ; and there ought not to be 

 admitted into the system a" single character as gene- 

 ric, for which a reason cannot be given. After this 

 the matter is to be taken up by the professional, 

 museum, or mechanical naturalist, whose business it 

 is to describe every shade of appearance with the 

 utmost accuracy, whether he understands any thing 

 about the use of it or not. He is properly the col- 

 lector and recorder of facts ; anok it belongs to men 

 of more enlarged views, who are not fettered by 

 petty details, to bring those facts within the philo- 

 sophy of the science, in as far as they can be so 

 brought. 



We have stated briefly this distinction, because we 

 think that, in the case of the family of birds under 

 notice, as well as in other parts in the natural history 

 of animals, there has been a tendency to mix up the 

 mechanical details with the philosophy of the science, 

 and thereby to vitiate the latter as a part of general 

 education. 



There is another point in which the natural history 

 of the ColumbidcE has been, and still remains, a little 

 confused. This has arisen from pushing the doctrine 

 of affinities a little too far. Pushing doctrines, which 

 are hypothetical in their foundations, too far, is the 

 cause of half the errors in every branch of knowledge ; 

 and yet there is nothing more difficult to be avoided. 

 A man takes up the hypothesis fondly, makes it his 

 own, and dotes upon it, until it spoils his perception 

 for every thing else. Or, if we may so express it, 

 the man runs away with the idea, and continues run- 



