120 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



they fall from their perches, and for a while 

 seem ready to expire. 1 The other is the grow- 

 ing of the beak, which becomes so very much 

 hooked as to deprive them of the power of eat- 

 ing. These infirmities, however, do not hin- 

 der them from being long-lived; for a parrot, 

 well kept, will live five or six and twenty 

 years. 



CHAP. VIII. 



THE PIGEON, AND ITS VARIETIES. 2 



THIS is one of the birds which, from its 

 great fecundity, we have, in some measure, 



low underwood. It is very rarely seen perched, and 

 when flushed, Mr Caley observes, takes a short flight, 



and then alights among the bushes, but never upon them. 

 Jf its mode of nidification, and other matters connected 

 with its history, we are unable to give any further ac- 

 r.ount. (For the materials of this note we are mainly in- 

 debted to a volume on Parrots, by Air Selby, in the Na- 

 turalist's Library.) 



1 Bleeding in the foot is recommended as a remedy 

 for this. 



2 The birds of this genus, which contains more than 

 one hundred species, inhabit all the warm and temperate 

 regions of the globe. The species with short and robust 

 bill are found throughout the whole extent of Africa, in 

 the islands of the Indian archipelago, in New Holland, 

 and in the islands of the South sea. The common 

 pigeons, with moderate bill, are the most generally ex- 

 tended through both continents. Those with slender 

 bill and long legs are proper to the climates of the new 

 world, of Africa, and of Asia, but are not found in 

 Europe. Only four species of the common pigeons are 

 found wild in this last part of the globe ; from one of 

 them, the biset or wild rock pigeon, as is supposed, are 

 descended all the various races which we find in a state 

 of domestication. Whether under the name of pigeons 

 or doves, these birds are uniformly quiet and harmless 

 in their nature. They live almost exclusively on fruits, 

 berries, seeds, and grains, and very seldom consume 

 insects or snails, or other animal food. In their mode 

 of living together, they are understood to be strict mono- 

 gamists, each attaching itself to a single mate, and ad- 

 hering to it alone ; but to this there are exceptions, as 

 we happen to have witnessed amongst the domesticated 

 species, in all of whom the bond of attachment is very 

 slight. The female seldom lays more than two eggs, 

 and it is remarkable that they almost invariably produce 

 b male and a female. Nature has assigned to pigeons 

 >u important office in the economy of creation. Their 



reclaimed from a state of nature, and taught 

 to live in habits of dependence. Indeed, its 

 fecundity seems to be increased by human 

 cultivation ; since those pigeons that live in a 



stomachs do not digest the seeds of certain fruits, and 

 these seeds being voided in the course of the animal's 

 flight, trees are thus disseminated and planted in situa- 

 tions which could never otherwise be reached by the 

 parent vegetables. The power of flight which pigeons 

 generally possess, seems to be only a feature in the ani- 

 mal's character subordinate to this beautiful and provi- 

 dential design. 



With a general resemblance of character, pigeons dif. 

 fer very materially in external appearance, both in re- 

 spect of shape and colour of plumage. In all countries 

 of the temperate zones they resemble the common house 

 pigeons of Britain, and are of a grayish or bluish tinge 

 of feather. In the warm countries within the tropics, 

 they shine forth with all the brilliancy of plumage of 

 parrots and other gay-feathered animals. The vinago 

 aromatico, (see Plate XV. fig. 29.) as one of the Indian 

 varieties of pigeons is called, is a beautiful creature with 

 bright light-green feathers from the breast to the tail, 

 with a darkish-coloured back, and wings striped with 

 yellow and brown. The ptilinopus purpuratus, a 

 variety found in India and Australia, is still more of a 

 bright green all over, here and there patched with bits 

 of a golden hue, and having a light purple crest. Green, 

 light blue, white, and cream colour, seem to be the pre- 

 dominating tints of the other varieties. The turtur 

 risorius, which is the pigeon referred to in the scrip- 

 tures, under the name of the turtle dove, is of a cream 

 colour, lighter on the breast than on the back, with a 

 stripe of green round the neck, and eyes of a red hue. 

 The most beautiful and handsome shaped pigeon is the 

 turtur lophotes, a native of Australia. This elegant 

 bird is of a very light gray colour on the head and 

 breast, brown along the back, wings with green, red, 

 brown, and cream-coloured feathers, and tail black, ex- 

 cept round the edges, which are white ; from the back 

 of the head grows a long slender tuft pointed gracefully 

 upward, and giving the animal an appearance somewhat 

 like the tufted cockatoo. 



The American continent is famed for the prodigious 

 number of its pigeons, the vast extent of forest aflbrding 

 them at once a place of safe resort and an abundance of 

 food for their subsistence. Audubon describes the habits 

 and geographical distribution of six varieties of pigeons 

 which frequent the United States: the Passenger pigeon, 

 the Carolina dove, the Ground dove, the White-headed 

 pigeon, the Zen aid a dove, and the Key West pigeon. 



The Passenger pigeon possesses, as is well known, an 



extraordinary power of flight, and this is seconded by as 

 great a power of vision. Though flying high and swiftly, 



