CHAPTER XV 



THE PIGEON 



fT^HE strong resemblance that the tame pigeon 

 JL often bears to the wild one known as the rock- 

 pigeon makes us suspect this latter to be the ancestor 

 of the bird that inhabits our dove-cotes. The rock- 

 pigeon has ashy-blue plumage with black-spotted 

 wings and pure-white tail. The neck and breast are 

 changeable in color according to the light in which 

 they are seen, and shine with a metallic luster, in 

 which sometimes purple and sometimes golden green 

 dominates." 



"That is exactly the ordinary plumage of our pi- 

 geons, ' ' said Emile. "When they come and peck the 

 bread that I crumble for them in the sun, I like to see 

 their magnificient breasts shining first with one color 

 and then with another, every time the bird moves." 



"Fond of traveling and endowed with a power of 

 flight in accord with this predilection, the rock-pi- 

 geon is scattered over the greater part of the world. 

 Nevertheless it is rare in France, where a few 

 wretched pairs, always in dread of the talons of the 

 bird of prey or the hunter's shot, make their nests 

 in the most sparsely settled cantons, on the shelves 

 of high rocks. The rocky and mountainous regions 



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