456 



PIGEON. 



least in copses in the neighbourhood of villages, than 

 of almost any other bird. The eggs are always two 

 in number, of a white colour, rather lengthened in 

 form, with both ends about equally thick. The male 

 does not feed the female while on the nest, but takes 

 his turn with her in the incubation, which is perhaps 

 nearly equally done by the pair. Notwithstanding 

 the open structure of the nest, the warmth of the birds, 

 the limited number of the eggs, and the constant sit- 

 ting of one or the other of the parent birds upon them, 

 bring forward the incubation in rather less than three 

 weeks. When the young first break the shell, they 

 are in a very callow and immature state, blind, of a 

 dark lead colour, and covered with a thin sprinkling 

 of yellowish down. While they are in this state the 

 parent b'rds do not feed them with food in its natural 

 state, such as they themselves subsist on. They give 

 them a sort of milky pap from the stomach, which is 

 the food of the parent birds, or rather part of it, re- 

 duced to chyme and mixed with the gastric fluid? of 

 the parents. It has been said that not only in these 

 but in several other species of pigeons, the craw or 

 first stomach secretes a fluid during the time when 

 the young require this sort of feeding, which it does 

 not secrete at other times, and that there is thus in 

 them a slight resemblance in this respect to the mam- 

 malia ; but this point, though a curious one, is not 

 very clearly established. It is certain, however, that 

 as the young advance to maturity the nature of their 

 food, which is still delivered from the craw of the old 

 birds, becomes less and less changed from the state 

 in which it was taken by these birds for their own 

 nourishment, so that, by the time that the young are 

 fledged and have strength to shift for themselves, 

 their digestive powers are fitted for that kind of nutri- 

 ment which their own exertions can find for them. 

 The young are usually fledged by the end of April ; 

 and after this there is generally a time of silence and 

 retirement into the depths of the forests, until about 

 the end of July, or the beginning of August, accord- 

 ing to the earliness of the season and the plentifulness 

 of food, the labours are renewed, and an autumnal 

 brood is reared. In very favourable places, where of 

 course the spring brood is earlier, there is an inter- 

 mediate or summer brood, and of course two pauses 

 or times of silence during the season. 



The beauty, the size, and even the apparent fami- 

 liarity of the ring-dove, in preferring the cultivated 

 parts of the country to the wild ones, have led many 

 to wish, and not a few to conclude, that it would be 

 brought into a state of domestication. Accordingly, 

 the eggs have been procured from the nest, and placed 

 under tarne pigeons, which have sat upon them and 

 hatched them, and also reared the young with as 

 much tenderness as if they had been their own off- 

 spring ; but whenever these young attained the pro- 

 per power of flight, they invariably made off to their 

 place in wild nature, and returned no more. Attempts 

 have also been made, we believe, to obtain hybrids, 

 but they have never succeeded ; and there is a line 

 of distinction between the two, especially in their 

 manners, which is sufficient to convince any one that 

 all such attempts arc hopeless. As to the domesti- 

 cation again, it is equally hopeless ; for, in order that 

 a bird may be readily domesticated, or dwell with 

 man without confinement, that bird must be social 

 the whole year round ; and if this sociality is to be 

 judged of from one season, the breeding season is the 

 one upon which the judgment ought to be founded. 



The reason of this is quite apparent, from the fact 

 that at that particular season all the energies and 

 propensities of the bird are most completely deve- 

 loped. It is the same with by far the greater num- 

 ber of the mammalia ; and indeed it seems to be a 

 very general law of nature. 



In autumn, indeed, the ring pigeons do begin to 

 associate in tlocks. They do this about the time 

 when the fields are cleared of the grain and leguminous 

 crops, and when beech mast, and various other fruits 

 of the forest tree?, begin to be strewed upon the ground. 

 This is seldom later than November in many parts ot 

 the country, and in some places it is as early as Oc- 

 tober. The grains and seeds left, and the small fallen 

 fruits, are their first subsistence ; but, as they are 

 ravenous feeders, they, if in great numbers, very 

 speedily exhaust these. After this they migrate 

 lower down, and attack the more succulent green 

 leaves which -are left in the field?, such as those ol 

 field greens, turnips, and mangold wurtzel, and as they 

 get very fat and vigorous during the time that they 

 are feeding on the grains and small fruits, they are 

 well prepared for enduring the severer and less abun- 

 dant part of the winter. During these rlockings they 

 never nestle upon the ground, but always betake 

 themselves to trees in order to perch for the night : 

 and though at this time they fly with rapidity iron: 

 pasture to pasture, they make no sound exrcpt will: 

 their wings. The ring-dove measures about a fool 

 and a half in the stretch of the wings. The wehrhl 

 is not so great in proportion to the dimensions us ir 

 some of ttie other species, but it is more graceful ii 

 its form. The colours are very fine, and remarkably 

 uniform in the different individuals, for a species so 

 widely distributed. The head and neck are of a very 

 peculiar grey colour, which reflects green in some 

 lights, and greenish black in others, and it is market 

 with bars of darker colour on the hind neck. The 

 ring from which the bird gets its name is not a com 

 plete collar surrounding the neck, but consists of two 

 patches, one on each side, approaching each other ir 

 the front and nearly meeting behind. The undei 

 parts are purplish red, with reflections varying fron 

 deep purple to clear green. The upper parts arc 

 grey, of the same changing colour as the head, but 

 consisting of two different shades which pass gradu 

 ally into each other. The mantle, or tipper part o 

 the back, together with the coverts of the wings, an 

 darkish grey ; and the lower part of the back, tlu 

 rump, and tail-coverts, are pale grey, passing intc 

 purple grey on the last. The tail-feathers, which arc 

 nearly squared over, or at least very slightly wedgec 

 at the'exlremity and blackish inthemiddle.are.marginec 

 with bluish grey, and have faint reflections of purple 

 and greenish brown. The bill is orange, but the cere 

 or naked skin at the base is covered with a meah 

 powder of a white colour. This bill is of a moderate 

 length, slightly arched at the tip of the upper man- 

 dible, and without any margin. The feet are pale ret 

 and the claws black. " In their form the feet ure nei 

 ther those of the typical tree pigeons or of the typica 

 ground pigeons, but something intermediate betweer 

 the two ; the outer and inner toes are of equal length 

 and the hind toe is rather stout, but not furnishec 

 with so broad a margin as it is in those pigeons whicl 

 seek their food on trees, it being understood that this 

 one is almost, if not altogether, a ground feeder. 



Such are the leading particulars of this the mosl 

 interesting perhaps of our copse birds ; and we have 



