XII 



PIGEONS 



The wild pigeon is noted for its very bad 

 nests. Legend says that, finding it impossible 

 to make a good one, and seeing the skill with 

 which the magpie made hers, he asked her to 

 be so good as to give him lessons. The mag- 

 pie consented to this on condition that the 



I. In Past and Present Times 



Though the pii^con comes at the end of 

 this work, and consec|uently after many other 

 of our domestic animals, both quadrupeds and 

 bipeds, it is not because it is less worthy of 

 esteem. Unlike the gallinaceous tribes, the 

 pigeon, by its docility and its readiness to pigeon should give her a cow. The pigeon 

 approach man, is a better domestic animal in agreed ; but after watching the magpie a few 

 the literal sense of the word than most of our moments he said he had learned enough, and 

 other feathered friends. Yet the pigeon has a refused to keep his promise. A judge was sum- 



cjuality that enables him, whenever ^ moned, and having decided that the 



pigeon had no right to receive 

 further instruction, the latter 

 \ has, ever since, made shock- 

 *K ingly bad nests. 



Tame pigeons, so frequent 



in Greece since the end 



of the fifth century before 



Christ, were long before 



that held sacred in the 



countries of Asia. They 



were kept in great flocks 



round the temples of Aphro- 



, and in Syria no one dared 



lands on them. They first 



came to Europe through Italy, where 



great numbers of white and colored 



doves were kept around the temple of 



he chooses, to break off instantly 

 and with far more ease than 

 our other domestic birds, the 

 ties of friendship that unite 

 him to house and family 

 He can fly with a rapidity 

 and to a distance unat- 

 tainable by man — so 

 long as the science of bal- 

 looning is in its infancy 



It is difficult to say when 

 the pigeon was first know n as 

 a domestic animal. We know 

 certain that he was such in \ 

 toric times, so that his taming must date 

 back to the youth of our planet. All 

 pigeon races descend from a wild pigeon 



The Dragon 

 Ficiiiox 



still existing, the rock pigeon, called also the Eryx in Sicily. From Italy they spread through 



wood pigeon, or ringdove. This species is spread 

 throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa ; but it is 

 found especially, and in vast numbers, among 

 the islands of the tropical seas. In view of the 

 incredible variety of species, it is almost incom- 

 prehensible how they could all ha\'e come from 

 one stock ; yet the fact was proved b)- Darwin. 

 The earliest mention of tamed [iigeons is, 

 according to Professor Lepsius, the famous 

 Egyi^tologist, during the period of the Third 

 Dynasty ; consequently, three thousand years 

 before Christ. 



Europe, following the power and civilization of 

 the Romans. Christianity adopted them as its 

 s\'mbol, while popular belief regarded the white 

 dove as the bearer of souls to heaven, and feared 

 his colored brother, the rock pigeon, as a bird 

 of ill omen. In Venice, that semi-Greek city, 

 clouds of pigeons still inhabit the cupola of the 

 church of San Marco and the roof of the Doges' 

 palace, and woe to him who tries to catch or 

 to harm them ! 



Nevertheless, in spite of these honors and 

 of the affection he inspires, the pigeon has 



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