132 NATURAL STATE NATIONAL PROFIT. 



SECTION XIV. 



Pigeons. 



THE PIGEON is recorded as one of the most ancient 

 inhabitants of all climates, those excepted in the 

 vicinity of the poles ; it prospers abundantly in tem- 

 perate regions, but in a still higher degree under the 

 burning sun of the tropics, no heat being too ardent 

 for its natural constitution. The wild pigeons of 

 cold countries are said to emigrate towards the 

 south on the approach of the winter. Pigeons ex- 

 hibit a satisfactory proof of the superiority of the 

 civilized over the savage or mere natural state, in 

 their multitudinous increase and endless varieties, in 

 a state of domestication, under the fostering-care and 

 all-subduing art of man. From their peculiar beauty 

 and innocence, they have always ranked among the 

 chief feathered favourites of mankind ; and in the 

 eastern countries, the original sources of religious 

 superstition, the dove has ever been a great object 

 of veneration, as an emblem of something divine. 



But to proceed to a far more material point the 

 NATIONAL PROFIT of encouraging the breed of pi- 

 geons to any great extent, has long been the subject 

 of much dispute. M. Duhamel, the apologist of these 

 beautiful favourites, I apprehend, has not been a 



