88 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
The generic characters of these birds are: a bill weak, 
slender, straight, pressed closely together at the sides, the 
bottom covered on both sides with an arched membrane, 
straight in front; a superior mandible swelled more or less 
towards the end, hooked, or only inclined at the point; ob¬ 
long nostrils, open towards the middle of the bill, placed in 
a cartilage forming a membranous protuberance, more or 
less thick or soft; a tongue whole and pointed; feet short, 
mostly red, with uncombined nails ; four claws, three before 
and one behind; the former are almost always quite free, 
but sometimes united at their origin by a small membrane; 
the wings long and pointed, or round and middle-sized ; the 
body is fleshy and savoury; their food consisting of fruits, 
grain, and seeds, which they swallow whole; they build their 
nests in a simple manner on the branches of trees or in 
holes. 
Pigeons, like the sparrows, are mouogamious, that is to 
say, one female is suflicient for a male. They keep together 
during the whole of the breeding season, and both work in 
constructing the nest; they divide between them the cares 
of incubation (hatching), and the education of their young. 
These are fed for some time in the nest; they are bom 
blind, and incapable of choosing then - food, which the male 
and female bring to them alternately; in short, they do not 
risk quitting the cradle in which they have been born, until 
they are entirely fledged. The Gallinaceous, or fowl tribe, 
on the contrary, are polygamous, and in several kinds one 
male can serve for a great number of females. The nest for 
their rising family is made entirely by the hen; she lays a 
great number of eggs, covers them, and hatohes their young 
without the cock appearing to take the slightest interest in 
her occupation. As soon as the chickens are hatched they 
can run about, quit the place of their birth, and know how to 
find their own food without the assistance of their parents. 
All these characters are more than sufficient to distinguish 
pigeons from the Gallinaceous tribe; but we shall also find 
reasons to separate them likewise from the class of sparrows. 
"When these last drink, they take the water into the lower 
mandible of their beak, and make it run into the throat by 
quickly elevating the head almost perpendicularly ; they all 
lay more than two eggs ; they simply place in the bill of then' 
young ones the food which they bring them; and lastly, they 
have not the faculty of inhaling air in large quantities. 
Pigeons, on the contrary, plunge their beak into the water 
when they drink, and draw in atone draught all the quantity 
of liquid that they require; they never lay more than two 
eggs ; they feed their young by pouring into their throat, in 
a peculiar manner, the food prepared in their stomach ; they 
can inhale a larger or smaller quantity of air, and retain it in 
their oesophagus (crop) as long as they wish. All this proves 
the interior organization to be quite different, besides which 
the singularity of their caresses, the nature of their plumage, 
and their inability to sing, separates them still further from 
this class of birds. From this it results that the pigeon 
should form, as Temminck, Le Yaillant, and other naturalists 
think, a separate order, and we may intercalate it between 
the sparrow and the Gallinaceous. 
We know some pigeons which in the wild state feed on 
berries, and even insects ; but they are generally granivorous, 
and all those that are reared in a tamo state live on grain. 
Their food undergoes in their oesophagus, or crop, a maceration 
first, which renders the digestion more easy when it has 
descended into the stomach, or gizzard. This gizzard is lined 
with very thick and strong muscles, and is furnished within 
with a hard rugose or wrinkled membrane; it exercises a 
strong mechanical action on the food. Pigeons, like most 
other birds, swallow a certain quantity of small stones, which 
mixed with grain already softened in the crop, are rubbed 
together with it, and by their hardness help to reduce it to a 
nourishing state. 
The lungs of all birds are single,closely attached to the sides 
and back-bone, and not enveloped in the inward skin of the ribs; 
they are pierced with holes, which permits the air to spread 
itself through every part of the body, as well as the cavities 
of the bones, but principally into sonic great bags placed in 
the brenst and belly, by which means they can swell them¬ 
selves considerably for the purpose of facilitating their flight, 
and producing that volume of voice which sometimes as 
tonishes us. rigeons have this singular faculty to a still 
more surprising extent, they can draw in and retain in their 
[May !). 
crop such a considerable quantity of air, that in some varieties 
their throat thus swelled is often as large as the rest of their 
body. The use of this strange organization is not yet known. 
Another singularity peculiar to these birds is, that at present 
no gall bladder has been discovered.* 
It is believed that pigeons contract but one marriage in 
their life, unless this union is broken by some fatal accident, 
but this is very doubtful. It is true, that in a dovecot a male 
often keeps his wife during his whole life, because continually 
urged to enjoyment, he has no time to seek among the great 
number of liis companions in slavery a free female which 
may be agreeable to him ; but there is nothing to cause one | 
to presume that in a state of liberty such is the case. As 
60011 as the autumn commences pigeons unite themselves in 
numerous flocks, either to seek together some climate where 
the rigours of winter are more supportable, or to brave them 
in their native country. They remain there in large bands 
until the return of spring announces to them again the 
amorous season, when they couple, and separate lrom their 
companions to rear their brood hi some wooded retirement. 
There is nothing to prove that at this epoch a male takes 
again the same female he had the preceding year. Be this 
as it may, .every band is always composed of individuals of 
the same species, and we never meet with turtle-doves and 
ring-doves mixed together, or with the stock-dove. This ob¬ 
servation is important, because it throws a little light on the 
history of the varieties of the dovecot. 
Rome pigeons choose a high tree, at the extremity of a 
secluded wood, to build on its branches, or in its trunk, a 
simple nest, composed of small sprigs and light sticks; 
others prefer the young underwood, the groves, the crevices of 
rocks, or even the deep holes in ruins and other old buildings. 
Their shapeless and almost flat nest is always sufficiently 
large to contain the male and female. They lay two eggs in 
it, which they cover alternately; and when they are hatched 
they divide equally all the cares that their offspring require, j 
In their infancy they feed them with food reduced in their 
crops to a state of liquid pap, which has a singular analogy 
to the milk of the breast. The interior coats of the pigeon’s 
crop are furnished with a great number of small yellowish 
glands ; during incubation these glands swell in a perceptible 
manner, and when the young pigeons arc hatched, a white j 
liquor runs from them quite analagous to the milk ol quad¬ 
rupeds. It is known that with these last this liquor curdles 
in the stomach of the little ones, and by this operation be- | 
comes digestive ; there is this difference between them and 
pigeons, that with these birds this first modification takes 
place in the crop of the father and mother,where this liquor 
mixes with a small portion of half-digested grain, and it is 
in this state they give it to their offspring in a very peculiar 
manner. For this purpose they place their entire bill in that j 
of their parent, keeping it. half open, while these bring the 
food up from their crop with a convulsive movement, which 
appears to be very painful, and is sometimes followed by j 
dangerous consequences, as may be seen in our observations i 
on the Large-throated or Pouter Pigeon. This operation is 
always accompanied with a quick trembling of the wings and 
body.t 
DESCRIPTION OF THE DOVE COT PIGEONS. 
First Division'—Dove Pigeons. 
FIRST RACE. 
1. Wild-Dove, or Rock-Pigeon: Cohmiba livia agreslis .— j 
The head, the top of the back, the covering of the wings, 
the breast, belly, sides, the upper and under coverings of the 
tail, arc of a bluish ash colour ; the sides of the throat reflect 
a golden green, changing colour according to the manner in 
which the light falls on them ; the lower part of the back or 
rump pure white ; the principal wing-feathers of a darkish 
ash colour, the others inclined to blue, all having two black 
spots, forming in connection two bands on the wings, and 
the tips are black, as well as those of the tail; the iris of the 
eye yellowish red; bill inclined to red; feet red, with black 
nails; length, twelve inches in a state of liberty, but thirteen, 
or even fourteen when domesticated. At all ages it is easily 
distinguished by its white rump. Several ornithologists look j 
upon it as a separate species; others think it only forms a 
* In this they also differ from Gallinaceous birds.—E d. 
f Wc have thought it best to publish a description of the varieties and 
species by degrees, with the history and management, otherwise all the j 
illustrations would come together at the end.—E d. 
