PIGEON. 



457 



only (o add, that though there is no hope of the bird 

 being brought into a state of domestication, yet u 

 pair which were confined in the gardens of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society of London, produced a couple of eggs 

 in 18.34, though the birds were in a sate of confine- 

 ment. 



The Wood Pigeon This is also known as a British 

 bird, though it is much more rare than the ring pigeon, 

 confined to more peculiar localities, and more con- 

 fined in its manners. This species still remains to 

 be popularly called the stuck dove, and the wood pigeon, 

 both of which names imply, that when they were 

 given to it it. was understood to be the parent stock 

 of the tame pigeons in all their varieties. The names 

 tend to keep up a belief in the mistake, and therefore 

 the sooner they cease to be used the better. In some 

 of its habits it bears a considerable rescmblace to the 

 ring pigeons, but it differs considerably in others, 

 and also in its habits, its size, and its form. It is by 

 no means so handsome a bird, and it is inferior in 

 size, being only about fourteen inches in length, and 

 twenty-six in the stretch of its wings. It is, however, 

 better winged for its length than the ring pigeon, and 

 its luibi.'s correspond. In Britain it is, as we have 

 said, rare, and almost confined to the midland coun- 

 ties, whereas the ring pigeon is found in almost all 

 the cultivated parts where there are plantations, and 

 the rock piirron reaches the extreme north. On the 

 continent, of Europe it is much more common and 

 also much more discursive than it is with us. In 

 winter it seeks the middle and southern latitudes, but 

 in summer it is distributed much farther to the north- 

 ward than even the ring pigeon. Its mariner of nestling 

 is very similar to that of the former species, and the 

 are the same in number, coiour, and shape, but 

 sunnier. The broods are also two in the year, one 

 before and the other following the midsummer rest. 

 Flocks accumulate in the autumn, in the same manner 

 as the ring doves do ; and the food of the two species 

 is, at these times, precisely the same. Indeed the 

 two often mingle together in the same Hock, and seek 

 their food on the same pastures. The wood pigeon 

 is just as incapable of domestication as the ring 

 >n ; but though it is a woodland breed, it is said 

 to be more constant to its breeding place than the 

 ring pigeon, the pair resorting to the same one for a 

 number of years. We must not suppose that this is 

 inconsistent with the more discursive habit of the 

 bird ; for birds which never by any chance migrate, 

 or range above a mile or two, are known to change 

 their breeding places every year ; whereas the same 

 pair of house martens, which in all probability go to 

 the distance of many miles in the winter, return every 

 summer, from year to year, to the same corner of the 

 same window. 



In very many of its characters the wood pigeon 

 appears to hold an intermediate place between the 

 ring pigeon and the rock pigeon, as we have said it 

 knows its resting place better than the ring dove does, 

 but in this respect it is vastly inferior to the rock. It 

 also occasionally builds in the hollows of old trees, 

 which the ring pigeon never does, but it is not known 

 ever to build in the cleft of a rock. Its note has not 

 the soft expression of that of the ring dove, neither is 

 it heard at so great a distance. It utters no sound 

 but a low and harsh grunt, and the fact of there being 

 no temptation for the ear in its voice may be one 

 reason why it is so seldom discovered, and this arain 

 may cause its numbers to be rated much below what. 



they are in reality. As food, too, it is superior to 

 the ring dove, but inferior to the common pigeon. As 

 this bird and its eggs are rather more difficult to 

 procure than those of the ring dove, we are not aware 

 that any attempt has been made to procure a mixed 

 breed between them ; but the habits of the birds differ 

 i so much that there is no question of the failure of the 

 experiment, even if it should be tried. The bill of 

 this bird is rather longer in proportion than that of 

 the former, and the upper mandible is tumid in the 

 middle and curved at the point. The upper parts are 

 dull bluish ash, the head dull bluish grey, and the 

 back and sides of the neck green, with reflections 

 of purple and bronze red. The rump, the wing- 

 coverts, and also the belly, are bright grey. The 

 primary quills are black with white margins, and the 

 middle ones are ash-coloured tipped with black, form- 

 ing two spots of that colour on the wing. The tail- 

 feathers are black ash-coloured at the base, and 

 marked on the under side by a band of grey. The 

 lower neck and breast are vinous red, the bill orange 

 red, the feet dull red, and the claws black. 



The Rock Pigeon. Though, as we have hinted, 

 this species ought to stand distinct from all the tree 

 pigeons and perching pigeons, yet, as it resembles in, 

 shape and in some of its characters, at least when in 

 the wild state, the ring and wood pigeons much more 

 than it resembles any other, we shall introduce our 

 short notice of it here ; and as the numerous arti- 

 ficial varieties belong to bird-fancying rather than to 

 natural history, we shall chiefly confine ourselves to 

 the bird as in a state of wild nature, and as a sort of 

 voluntary dweller in artificial pigeon-houses. If we 

 have occasion to say anything more than this, it will 

 only be to point out the curious deviations from the 

 simple form in the natural state, which artificial 

 treatment has produced in this species of bird. Even 

 in pigeon-houses, where almost the only thing which 

 art does for them, is to provide them with an artificial 

 dwelling more comfortable than those in which they 

 naturally take up their residence, and situated in the 

 closer vicinity of rich pastures for their feeding, even 

 there they are very prone to break into varieties of 

 colour, and in proportion as they are brought nearer 

 and nearer to the house, they deviate farther and 

 farther from the appearance of the bird in a state of 

 nature ; and some of them become so fantastic in ap- 

 pearance, as to differ more from the parent stock 

 than other species with which that stock is little if 

 anything allied. Amid all these varieties, however, 

 there are certain characters of the wild bird which are 

 never entirely obliterated. There are two dusky 

 bars across each of the closed wings, and some white 

 in the rump. If the general colour is white, the 

 superior whiteness on the rump is of course not easily 

 discerned ; but even then the bars on the wings may 

 be traced. In the state of nature, the appearance 

 of these birds may be briefly described in the fol- 

 lowing terms : the body very compact, the shoulders 

 tapering finely to the neck, the top of the head flat, 

 the front elevated, and the bill of moderate length ; 

 the tail long and more rounded at the extremity than 

 in either of the other British species, and the wings 

 long and pointed ; the head and throat are bluish- 

 grey, and so are the lower part of the breast and the 

 belly ; the upper part of the breast and sides of the 

 neck are brownish-purple, with reflections of purplish 

 red and green ; the mantle and smaller coverts of 

 the wings are bluish-grey ; the lower part of the back 



