CHAPTER XXVIII 

 THE DOMESTIC PIGEON 



A hundred wings are dropt as soft as one. 

 Now ye are lighted lovely to my sight 

 The fearful circle of your gentle flight, 

 Rapid and mute, and drawing homeward soon ; 

 And then the sober chiding of your tone 

 As there ye sit from your own roof arraigning 

 My trespass on your haunts, so boldly done, 

 Sounds like a solemn and a just complaining ! 



CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER, On Startling Some Pigeons. 



Habitat and Distribution. The domestic pigeon is known 

 under many varieties, all of which, it is now believed, have 

 been bred by artificial selection from the rock-dove (Colum'ba 

 liv'ia, Fig. 189), a bird widely distributed throughout the 

 European north-temperate realm. In its wild state the rock- 

 dove nests in the crevices of rocks, usually along seacoasts. 

 The different domesticated varieties have been still more 

 widely scattered over the earth through man's influence. 



External Structure. In the pigeon we can distinguish a 

 head, neck, trunk, and tail. All over the body the skin is 

 closely set with feathers. There are two pairs of appendages : 

 the anterior, or wings, are used for flight, and the posterior, 

 the legs, for support. The wings consist of an upper arm, fore- 

 arm, and hand, as in the amphibians and reptiles, though the 

 digits are joined together and reduced in number (Fig. 191, 

 1,2; a third is shown, though not numbered). The legs (Fig. 

 191, 3) also show divisions similar to the hind legs of amphib- 

 ians and reptiles, i.e. thigh, lower leg, and/t>0, the latter being 

 covered with scales and ending in four toes, which bear claws 

 resembling those of the lizard. 



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