CHAPTER I 



The Origin of Fancy Pigeons 



The term pigeon is derived from the Latin word 

 Pipio, which translated literally means a nestling bird 

 that "pipes" or cries out, or as we know it in America 

 a "squealer." The pigeon proper belongs to a family of 

 birds known as Columbidae, comprising all the different 

 varieties of doves, as well as pigeons, and forming the 

 genus Columba. They are generally classed among 

 gallinaceous birds, but as they resemble both the orders 

 Rassores (Scrapers or Scratchers) and Insessories 

 (Perchers) they have by some naturalists been consti- 

 tuted into a distinct order between the two. 



While they resemble the order Gallinacea, in that 

 their bills are cornparatively short and slightly curved 

 with a cartilaginous scale, through which their nostrils 

 are pierced, and in their large crops and blunt claws, 

 they differ from them in their monogamus habits, their 

 living in pairs, and in the fact that the male shares with 

 the female the duties of incubation and of feeding the 

 young. 



Their young, unlike those of the Gallinacea which are 

 able to run as soon as they are hatched, are born blind 

 and helpless and consequently must be fed by the parent 

 birds. By a wonderful and singular provision of 

 Nature, as the period of incubation draws to an end, 

 the food taken by the old birds into their crops softens, 

 and is changed into a milky fluid, known to naturalists 

 as "pigeon's milk." This "milk" is injected into the 

 mouths of the young birds, by a peculiar spramodic 



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