ORDER GALLlN.i:. 289 



avails itself of the proffered security. It can then, for the 

 most part, dispense with the auxiliary vigilance of its com- 

 panions. The object to be gained by combined association 

 exists no longer ; but yet the instinct which impels to it is not 

 destroyed ; it exhibits itself more or less in the most domes- 

 ticated state to which these birds can be brought. The tame 

 pigeons, free, or shut up in an aviary, still continue to pre- 

 sent to the observing eye those phenomena of their intelli- 

 gence and feelings which, in the wild or half-domestic state, 

 concur to the formation or support of societies. Some may 

 be remarked continually acting in the capacity of watchers to 

 the rest, and others that never undertake this employment. 

 Some individuals always clatter their wings in flying ; others 

 never make a noise of this kind. 



Thus we invariably find, that there are fixed limits 

 assigned to that empire which man is permitted to exercise 

 over the lower animals. Every thing has been provided by 

 nature for the subsistence, the conservation, and the perpe- 

 tuity of the beings which she has produced, under all pos- 

 sible varieties of condition and circumstance. Her provisions 

 for the existence of certain species sometimes happen to 

 accord with the views of man, and he avails himself of them. 

 But here his empire for the most part ends. It is so far from 

 absolute, that it is evidently permitted, as much with a view 

 to the advantage of those over whom it is exercised, as to 

 himself. If this observation will not entirely apply to all 

 domesticated animals, it will certainly apply to all those which 

 are domesticated merely for the purposes of food. 



The varieties of the domestic pigeon are so excessively 

 numerous, and the details of authors concerning them so 

 voluminous, that within our space it is impossible to give any 

 view of them. To do so at any length would require a 

 volume. 



The Turtle Dove, or pigeon, is a bird of passage, which 



VOL. VIII. u 



