FAMILY CO LUMBI DA. PIGEONS. 



81 



snow, and to grasp more tightly the branches of the ice-covered trees. The 

 Ptarmigans, on the contrary, which have their legs and toes feathered to the 

 claws, and even on the soles of their feet, are inhabitants of the polar regions, 

 for which the tliick down beneath their feathers admirably suits them ; they 

 alone, of the whole genus, live in large flocks, and only separate in pairs 

 when breeding-tune comes round with the spring. 



The bodies of the whole genus are large and fleshy, are highly valued for 

 the pleasure they afford the sportsman, as well as for the table ; and they 

 have generally a peculiar flavour from the food on which they live. About 

 eighteen species. 



TINAMUS. This genus was formed by Latham; but subsequently its 

 name has been changed by Illiger into Crypturus, on account of its tail 

 being concealed by the coverts : Latham's generic name is, however, very 

 tvi id-ally employed. They almost invariably live in thick woods, running 

 about during the day among the underwood, rarely fly, and then only for a 

 short distance, but some" are found among the high grass in the open fields. 

 At night they usually roost on the lower branches of trees, where, hidden 

 among the foliage, they are protected from the assaults of their four-footed 

 or winged enemies. Species about eighteen. 



Family PIGEONS ; Columbida. 

 The Pigeons form a connecting link between the Passeres and Galli- 



nacea. 



Genera. 



ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES. 

 PLATE 10. 



Species. Common Name. 



1 Carunculata - - - Carunculated Pigeon. 



Coronata - - - - Crown-bird or Crowned Pigeon. 



-, . , , 



(Knas ----- otock-aove. 



Leucocephalus - - White-headed Pigeon. 



Wallia - - - - Abyssinian Pigeon. 



Calva ----- Bald-fronted Pigeon. 



CHARACTERS OF THE GENERA. 



Vmago - --- 



1. COLUMBA (Gr. KoXvpflaw, to swim). Beak moderate-sized, thin, 

 vaulted, slightly compressed, with a soft bulbous projection at its junction 

 with the jaws ; toes distinct, four in number, the inner the longest ; tail 

 having twelve quills. 



2. VINAGO. General characters same as the Columba, or restricted 

 Pigeons ; their bill is stouter and more solid, and is laterally compressed ; 

 tarsi short ; feet large. 



COLUMBIDA. DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES. 



COLUMBA Pigeon. This genus, which is very numerous, and which 

 furnishes so many of our poultry yards, may be considered as an easy 

 gradation from the Gallinacei to the Passeres ; they have the arched beak 

 of the former, and the nostrils are situated in a broad membranous space, 

 at the root of the beak, and covered by a cartilaginous scale, which is 

 prominent, and forms a bulbous projection at the junction of the beak with 

 the jaws ; the toes have no membrane at their base, but that produced by 

 the junction of their edges ; the tail is composed of twelve quills. They 

 are very good flyers, and perhaps the Romans derived their name from the 

 circumstance of their appearing to swim through the air. They live in 

 pairs, and seldom have more than two young ones at a time, breeding in 

 the wild state about twice in the year, and if the eggs be destroyed or re- 

 moved they lay again ; the male takes his turn with his mate in sitting 

 during the time of incubation ; and when the young ones are hatched, after 

 about fourteen days' sitting, they are fed by both the parent birds, for the 

 first few days with a substance resembling curdled milk, which afterwards 

 becomes mixed with the half-digested food thrown up from the gizzard. In 

 the domestic state they breed four, five, or six times, annually, and occa- 

 sionally as many as nine tunes ; in which case a single pair of Pigeons will, 

 according to Stillingfleet, produce in the course of four years 14,762 young 



ones, or by Linnceus's computation more than 18,000. They live upon 

 pulse of different kinds, and go out into the fields to seek their food. 



The species, which are numerous, are divided into three subgenera : 

 1. Gallina Pigeons; 2. Common Pigeons; and 3. Columbars; of which 

 the genus Vinago has been formed. 



The Illustrated Species (Plate 10) are the following: 



The Carunculated Pigeon (C. Carunculata), about the size of the Turtle 

 Dove ; bill red and tipped with black ; Torehead furnished with a red skin 

 extending to the ears ; under the throat a red wattle ; the eye surrounded 

 with a red skin ; the plumage generally of a deep grey ; tail short and 

 slightly cuneiform ; legs red, with crooked claws. Native of the interior 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. 



The Great Crowned Pigeon (C. Coronata), nearly as large as a Turkey ; 

 upper parts of the body deep ash colour, shaded with purplish chestnut ; 

 at the bend of the wing a horny excrescence ; head, breast, and belly of a 

 dull blue, the former marked through the eyes with a black stripe ; irides 

 red ; beak black ; head-feathers in length about five inches, with loose 

 webs, forming a beautiful crest ; tail deep ash colour, but paler at its tip ; 

 legs dusky, and occasionally spotted with red. Native of the Moluccas 

 and New Guinea, and not unfrequent in Amboina, but they will not propa- 

 gate in Europe. 



Brisson and BufFon have placed this bird among the Pheasants. 



The Stock Dove (C. (Enas), [is, according to Colonel Montague, the bird 

 from which all our varieties of Domestic Pigeons spring ; it is about 

 fourteen inches long ; the head, upper part of the back, wings, fore part of 

 the neck, lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, are dull ash 

 colour ; the back, and sides of the neck, green gold, glossed with copper ; 

 lower parts of the neck and breast vinaceous ; legs red, and claws black. 

 It inhabits many parts of England, living in hollow places in the rocks, 

 among ruined houses, or holes of trees. Among the varieties of this 

 species we find Tumblers, Jacobines, Croppers, Powters, Runts, Turbits, 

 Owls, Nuns, Carriers, Dragoons, cum multis aliis. 



The White-headed Pigeon (C. Leucocephalus), figured on Plate 10, is 

 another species of the Common Pigeon. 



The Carrier Pigeon (C. Tabellaria) is also deserving of notice ; it is of 

 a dusky colour, and has a number of remarkable tubercles about the eyes 

 and bill ; the irides are scarlet, and the legs red. The Carrier Pigeon has 

 long been employed for the purpose of speedily conveying letters from one 

 place to another, as it is said to travel at the rate of twenty-six miles an 

 hour. In an experiment made with one of these birds some years since, 

 the flight from Salisbury to London was accomplished in three hours and 

 seven minutes, a distance of eighty-three miles ; so that the bird must have 

 travelled at the rate of more than twenty-seven miles per hour. In 1819 a 

 Carrier Pigeon flew from Norwich to London, 109 miles, in four hours and 

 fifty-five minutes ; the same bird had arrived in London a short time before 

 from Bury, seventy-two miles, in three hours. This will give some notion 

 of the speed at which these birds fly, and may perhaps induce us to listen 

 with some attention to Lithgow's account of a Pigeon's flight from Babylon 

 to Aleppo, a thirty days' journey, in forty-eight hours. The use of the 

 Carrier Pigeon was well known to the ancients ; and we find Anacreon 

 describing it in his Ode, Etc Uepiffrepav, as his ready messenger to the boy 

 Bathyllus. But it served a better purpose when Brutus, shut up in 

 Mutina, contrived to correspond with Hirtius, who was without, at the 

 time his couriers were intercepted by Antony. 



Formerly the Pigeon was employed by the English Factory at Scande- 

 roon, to carry intelligence of the arrival of their ships in that port to Aleppo, 

 a journey which it would perform in two hours and a half. Dr. Russel, in 

 his Natural History of Aleppo, states, that the Pigeon had a young brood 

 at Aleppo, and being sent down to Scanderoon in an open cage, from 

 which, as soon as she was set at liberty, she made her way with all speed 

 to her nest. The natives stated that the Pigeons were brought down at 

 once to Scanderoon without any education ; but Dr. Russel believed that 

 they were rather taught to fly short distances at first on the Scanderoon 

 road. He also observed that the Pigeon, when let loose, instead of 



