90 PIGEON PAON. [CHAP. iv. 



old Fanny lived there five days without food before her 

 prison door happened to be opened. When at last she 

 came forth, instead of being milk white, she was all 

 dingy, like a blackamoor." J. W. 



Pigeons generally can bear long fasts, and perform 

 long journeys, better than common fowls. Their tena- 

 ciousness of life under starvation must be considerable. 

 I have seen the remains of a Pigeon that had been 

 starved to death in a hole in a church wall ; and the 

 webs of the feathers had all been absorbed, leaving the 

 shafts only remaining before the poor bird died at last. 



" The Pigeon Paon or Peacock Pigeon," says Tem- 

 minck, "is so named, because it has the faculty of 

 erecting and displaying its tail nearly in the same way 

 in which the Peacock raises and expands his dorsal fea- 

 thers. This race might also be called Pigeons Dindons, 

 or Turkey Pigeons, their caudal feathers being also 

 placed on an erector muscle capable of contraction and 

 extension at pleasure." But here M. Temminck is 

 surely in error : the tail of the Fantail is always ex- 

 panded and displayed, and when other domestic Pigeons 

 do spread their tail in the actions of courtship, it is 

 brought downwards, so as to sweep the ground like a 

 stiff train, not upwards like the Turkey or the Pea- 

 fowl. " When they raise their tail," they bring it for- 

 ward; [and it is always raised and brought forward, 

 except in flight;] " as they at the same time draw back 

 the head, it touches the tail ; and when the bird wishes 

 to look behind itself, it passes its head between the in- 

 terval of the two planes which compose the tail. They 

 usually tremble during the whole time of this operation, 

 and their body then seems to be agitated by the violent 

 contraction of the muscles. It is generally while making 



