ORDER GALLINiE. 287 



the district, but have made an incursion, pressed by hunger, 

 or some other want. But if in their retreat they continue to 

 fight and defend themselves, we may conclude that they have 

 been habituated to the place, and are driven out, not for 

 want of courage or obstinacy, but by main force and superior 

 strength. They will not abandon their territory but after 

 the most desperate combats, for pigeons, like many other 

 animals, seem to claim a right of property in certain districts 

 from usage and prescription. 



Such is the society of the pigeons — such are its bonds of 

 connexion, its internal regimen, and its objects. Every 

 thing is adapted for its permanence and its preservation : and 

 we may easily believe that its wants alone have determined 

 its members to approach the habitations of man, and to sub- 

 mit themselves to a species of servitude. It is only held toge- 

 ther by the means which we have described ; for these birds, 

 which exhibit so much tenderness for their young as long as 

 the latter cannot fly, soon pass to a very different sort of dis- 

 position. They will not only nourish their offspring no 

 longer, but having once engaged them to try their wings, con- 

 clude by driving them out of the nest. The young pigeons 

 then follow the flock, and to it alone, for the future, they be- 

 long. They have then the lessons of example, and are 

 obliged to yield that obedience which is the irrevocable destiny 

 of the feeble. Nature, whose foresight in the preservation of 

 all species is so remarkable, would not have limited the 

 parental tenderness of these birds to the short period of three 

 weeks, if she had not provided a sure asylum for the young, 

 the weak, the unskilful, and the improvident. 



It appears more than probable that the family of the 

 columbae contains species and races, not only prone to live in 

 society with their fellows, but that feel a sort of attraction 

 towards man, and a pleasure in his neighbourhood, — are sus- 

 ceptible of the wish of engaging his attention, and of con- 



