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THE DOVECOTE
AND
THE AVIARY:
L _ BRING SKETCHES oF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PIGEONS AND OTHER
DOMESTIC BIRDS IN A CAPTIVE STATE, WITH HINTS FOR THEIR MANAGEMENT.
By Rev. E. S. DIXON, M.A.,
AUTHOR OF “ORNAMENTAL AND DOMESTIC POULTRY.”
WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1851.
LONDON: GEORGE WOODFALL AND SON, ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET.
TO
THE EARL OF DERBY,
PRESIDENT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, ETC., ETC., ETC.,
WHOSE DISTINGUISHED AID TO ZOOLOGY HAS BEEN SO LIBERAL, CONTINUOUS, AND EFFICIENT, THE PRESENT VOLUME IS, BY PERMISSION, DEDICATED,
* BY HIS LORDSHIP’S RESPECTFUL AND OBLIGED SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE researches requisite to complete the volume on “Ornamental and Domestic Poultry” naturally put the Writer in possession of many a clue towards the better understanding of the natures of other domestic, captive, and familiar birds. The following pages may therefore be looked upon as an almost necessary sequel to the former work. The object has been to ascertain the Place which certain genera and species are likely eventually to take, in respect to their association with mankind, and to obtain a cognizance of the circum- Stances most immediately connected with that relation- ship. The writer is fully aware that it is not easy for him to answer and explain several of the objections» that may be urged against the theoretical views he has ventured to state; but he is also both extensively read and practically experienced in the still greater difficul- ties and inconsistencies of the progressive hypothesis of domesticated creatures. What zoology, in its sub- Servience to the requirements of man, now wants, is a Series of widely-extended experiments: unknown zoo- logical capabilities, and the results of untried zoological Combinations are, at the present date, as little to be Suessed at as were those of chemistry a hundred years
vi ADVERTISEMENT.
ago. The experiments are commencing, and the writer is glad that he has been one instrument in exciting their pursuit. The whole subject is, just now, of very increasing interest. The industrious student and the unprejudiced discoverer may yet gather not only facts, but fame.
Three of these Essays first appeared in “ Bell’sWeekly Messenger,” whence they were immediately transferred to the “ Morning Herald,” and perhaps to other prints; the rest is offered to the reader’s consideration for the first time. The necessity of being brief will excuse the author for here acknowledging, in general terms only, the kind assistance which has been afforded him by very many friends and correspondents.
CRINGLEFORD HALL, Norwicn, April, 1851.
CONTENTS,
THE DOVECOTE.
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.
Pigeons differently constituted to other domestic birds.—Interest attached to them.—Pets of childhood.—Paradoxical increase.— Effect of captivity on the productiveness of some birds.—Beauty of the Columbidae.—Earliest history. —The olive branch.—Arab legend. —Ancient domestication. —Feral Pigeons. —Domestic Pigeons long established in America.—Not found among the
‘gyptian monuments. — Ancient pigeon-fanciers. — Messenger
irds.—A gents of superstition. Misrepresentation.— Use during Sleges.— Ancient pigeon-houses and fatting-places.—Cato a pigeon- fatter—The Mosaic Doves of the Capitol.—Friendship of the kestrel.—Charms for dovecotes.— Effectual attractions.—Patron- ized by commercial people
CHAPTER II. MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS.
Feed their own young.—New-hatched squabs.—The pigeon-loft. —The trap.— N esting-places.—F ood and luxuries.— Water-sup- ply. — Out-door pigeon-houses. — Pole-house. — Dovecotes. —
1geon law.—Varro’s dovecote.—Stocking the loft.—Commence- Ment of breeding.—Laying.—Incubation.—Merits of the cock. —Nutrition and growth of the squabs.—Pairing of Pigeons.—
wo hens will pair together.—Widowed Pigeons.— Young birds..
ifferences among the eggs and the very young.—Providential adaptations .
PAGE
34
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
CLASSIFICATION OF PIGEONS, PAGE Proposed classes.— Ambiguous nomenclature.—The question of origin.— Ground of the received opinion little investigated by naturalists. —Estimate of Temminck’s authority.— Difficulties and doubts suggested by the accounts of former ornithologists,— The reader to sum up the evidence.—Scheme of arrangement
CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC PIGEONS.
FANTAIS; their powers.—Effects of crossing.— Accident to one. — Pigeon Paon.—The lean poet of Cos.—Runts.— Pigeon mon- dains.—Comparison of eggs and weights.—Synonyms of Runts. —Runts at sea.—Rodney’s bantam.—Peeuliarities of Runts,— Runts in Italy.—Effects of crossing. —Trumpeters.— Archangel Pigeons.—Nuns. —Jacobines.—Columbarian distinctions. — Sup- posed caricature. — Turbits.—Temminck’s ideas.— 0O wls.— Pro- gress of the young.—Rapid growth.—Barbs.—Tumblers.—Their performance in the air.—Feats of wing.—The Almond.—Pecu- liarity of forn .—Learning to tumble.—Baldpates.—Helmets,— Powters and Croppers.—Their carriage, flight, and colouring, Defects and remedies. —Crosses.—Carriers.—Castle of the birds, —How they find their way.— Phrenological hypothesis—Carriers in Turkey.—Sir John Ross’s birds. —Explanation.— Antwerp Carriers.—De Beranger.—English Carriers. —Oriental origin, — Lace and Frizzled Pigeons.— Eggs and young of the Columbidæ. —Quarrels and attachments.—Mating.—Love of home.— Food, — Merits of the Runts.—Etymology of the Trumpeter
CHAPTER V. PIGEONS WHICH ARE BOTH DOMESTIC AND WILD.
The Blue Rock Dove.—Varro’s account.—Distinguished from Dovehouse Pigeons.—Disposition. — Experiment. —Gregarious- ness.—Crossing with Carriers.—Less kept than formerly.— Mari-
CONTENTS. ix
PAGE time haunts.—Colonel Napier—Rock Pigeons in Sutherland. — Differ in habits from Fancy Pigeons.—Characteristic plumage.— Productiveness.—Quality of flesh. Dovehouse Pigeon.—Indian Rock Pigeon.—Mr. Blyth’s account.—Columba affinis.—Question of distinctness, —Pigeon matches.—A pology.—Numbers shot.—
igeon-shooting in France. — Temperature, of the bird.—Value as nurses.—The Collared Turtle.—Native haunts.—Disposition. —How far domestic. —Escapades.—Food.—Pairing.— Nesting and incubation.—Education of the young.—Severe discipline. — Watchfulness.— Voices.—Interesting pets.—Plumage and varie- ties. —Hybrids.— Heralds of Peace.—The Irish Dove . OGG,
CHAPTER VI. PIGHONS NOT CAPABLE OF TRUE DOMESTICATION.
The Stockdove,—Natural instinets.—The Ring Dove.—Mischief done by.—The Turtle Dove.—Peculiarities.—Australian Pigeons. — Whether domesticable.—The Wonga- Wonga.—Claims to no- tice.— Mr. Gould’s opinion.—Bronze-winged Pigeons.—Native habits. — Water guides.—Temminck’s account.—Plumage.—In- terest of Australian Pigeons.—Have bred in confinement.— Captain Sturt’s accounts.—Abstinence from water.—Aid in extremities, —Ventriloquist Pigeon. — Geopelia tranquilla. — arlequin Bronze-wing.—First discovery.—Food and habits.— heir doings at Knowsley.—Graceful Ground Dove.—Minute birds and beasts of Australia.—Mr. Gould’s account.—Crested ustralian Pigeons,—Their breeding at Knowsley.—Habits in captivity, — The Passenger Pigeon.—Disposition.—Escaped birds. ~—The Long-tailed Senegal Dove.—Their song.—Synonyms.— Viary Management , : : ; : f
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CONTENTS,
THE AVIARY,
CHAPTER I.
THE ORACIDA—CURASSOWS.
PAGE Want of precise information.—Expected results from the Zoolo- gical Society.—Its great advantages.—Disappointments.— Causes thereof.—Erroneous Assumptions.—The limited power of Man. —Domesticability of Cracidæ.— Former attempts.—Natural dis- position of the bird.—Imported long ago.—IIl success at the Zoological Gardens.—The Cracidæ at Knowsley. —Arboreal habits.—-Of tender constitution.—Curassows at home.—Tame, not domesticated.—Not common in S. America.—M. Ameshoft’s Jestin d Heliogabale.—Eges . $ e
CHAPTER II. THE CRACIDAI—PENELOPES (COMMONLY GUANS).
Difficulty of discriminating the species.—State in which the young are hatched.—Lasily tamed.—Produce few young in a tame state.—Mode of distinguishing species.—Organ of voice. —lIts efficiency.—The Cracidz as poultry—Mr. Bennett’s and Mr. Martin’s hopes.—Cause of failure—Have had a fair trial. —Curassow dinner.—OCracide in Holland.—Temminck’s expec- tations; plausible but unfounded.—Determine on an experi- ment.—Unsuitability of South American organisms to Great Britain.—Instances.—Few exceptions.—The reversed seasons of the north and south hemispheres one cause.—Mr. Darwin’s ac- count.—Guans at the Surrey Gardens.—Their native habits and diet.—Our own mishaps.—Troublesome tameness of the birds. —Tricks and dangers.—Impudence and capriciousness.—Pos- sible profitableness !—Narrative of a coadjutor.—His ill-success, —Our own.—Habits of the Eye-browed Guan.—Amount of success at Knowsley . : ; ; : ; : 245
CONTENTS. Xi
CHAPTER III.
THE ORESTED TURKEY. Tmagina ; _ PAGE ry and doubtful animals.—Crested Turkeys formerly in Holland.—None now produced in English poultry-yards.— Still extant in Central America.—Of two kinds.—Not a freak of na- ture, but distinct species.—Desiderata in our menageries . . 274
CHAPTER IV. THE WATER HEN.
Undomesticable, and of paradoxical habits—Their familiar aution.— Attracted by luxuriant water-weeds.— Will have their own way.—Mode of travelling under water.—And on the sur- face.— Post mortem.—Proofs of creative design.—Habits of the young.—Rare water-rail.— Aldrovandi’s uncertainty.— Versa- tility of Water Hens—Modes of escape.—Water Hens in St. James's Park,—Water Hens about country houses. —Odd noises. — Activity of the young.—Usual nesting-places.— Prolific BEAR SE a Ae AA shud, Goal Sapa)
CHAPTER V. å KINGFISHERS.
Halcyon of the ancients; what ?—Aldrovandi’s figures and de- Scriptions.—Nest of Haleyon.— Haunts and habits of the King- sher.— Anecdote.—How far destructive to fish—To procure young birds—To rear and feed them.—Captive Kingfishers. —Mr. Rayner’s aviary.—Diet and habits of Kingfishers there. —Mode of eating. Their pugnacity.—Destructiveness of a ~€ron.—Unsociability of Kingfishers—Management in a cap- tive State—African Kinghunters.—Australian Kingfishers.— he Laughing Jackasses 7 . k ett . . 297
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
SSSR SRST teem So TT, —_
THE GRALLATORES, OR’ WADERS, IN CAPTIVITY,
PAGE
Their tameable disposition.—Fallacy of generalizing too much. —The White Stork and the Black.—Gigantic Indian Cranes,— Cruelty the companion of ignorance—Strange forms well con- trived.—The Lapwing and the smaller Waders.—The Common Crane.—The Stanley Crane.—The Spoonbill—The Common Heron.— Dr. Neill’s Heron.—His proceedings, and attempts to breed.— Unfortunate end i : ; : : f . 813
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CHAPTER VIL.
THE BITTERN,
Its temper.—Voice.—Nesting habits and haunts.—The Marram banks.—The district which they skirt.—The Bittern, its home.
—Money value.—Mr. Jecks’s Bittern.—Its manners in captivity 325
CHAPTER VIII. THE WHITE STORK.
A model of virtue—Ancient instances and modern explanations. —Gratitude.—The charm of ideality.—Captive Storks best in pairs.—The Dutch and English modes of pinioning.—Delight at liberation.—Jealousy, muteness, and politeness.—Mode of fish- ing.—Diet.—Services rendered,—Sad misadventure.— Habits in captivity.—Congregation of Storks in Sweden.—Antiquated no-
tions.—The Stork’s departure and return i ~ : . 335
CHAPTER IX.
THE EMEU,
Pets for princes.—Orthography of the name.—Confounded with the Cassowary.—Game laws in Australia.—Anticipated extinc- tion of the Emeu.—Operating causes.—Self-denia] of the abori- gines.—Duty of the present Australians to preserve the Emeu.
CONTENTS, xiii
p : T PAGE “ase with which it may be stalked.— Proposed Emeu parks.
— Little hope for future Emeus.—The refuge of domestication.—
Mornithes, or Wonder Birds.—Their discovery and history.— daptation of the various species to their locality in New Zea- and.—Their great variety.—Their recent existence.—How con- Stegated in New Zealand.—Professor Owen’s conjecture.—Any hope that they still survive 2—A few glimpses of evidence.—The atest news.—Habits and propagation of the Emeu.—The Emeus at Knowsley.— Follow the seasons of the southern hemisphere.
—Injudicious proceedings.—Their diet.—Peculiarities of their Plumage ~ BBE
CHAPTER X.
THE COMMON OR DAOTYL-SOUNDING QUAIL.
Emblem of mediocrity.—Explanation of specific name.—Call note.—Their migrations, Immense multitudes,—Their destruc- tion.— Ancient history.—Identical with the Quail of Scripture.—
© not universally migrate.— Welcome feasts afforded by their fight —Qnails in captivity.—Their fate in an aviary.—Distine- tion between Quails and Partridges.— Unvarying plumage throughout the Old World.— Whether polygamous.—Careless of 1 eir young.—Their double moult.— Breeding in confinement.—
let.— Subject to epilepsy.—Estimation as food.—Modes of cooking and of fatting.—Quail fights.—Distinction of sex.— Ke Werwick.—Quails in process of fatting.—Necessaries of
Ife . 374
CHAPTER XI. THE ORTOLAN.
The fatting of wild birds largely practised by the ancients.— side old-fashioned fare.—Mock and true Ortolans.—Not native Titons.— Merits as cage birds.—Their song, plumage, and diet. ~Variable States of fatness. — Effects of revolutions. — Beau thon a i: .. . oe
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
GULLS IN CAPTIVITY, AND GULLERIES,
Desirable pets.—Longevity.—Discipline of new-caught birds.— Reconciliations and confidences.—Good-natured, not stupid.— Hardy and accommodating, but not ascetic.—Requisites for a Gullery.—Voracity of Gulls.—Black-headed Gull.—Its mode of nesting.—Its eggs.—Domesticability of Gulls.—Their capture. —Application of the method to Geese.—The birds kept in Dr. Neill’s Gullery.—Docility of Cormorants.—Chinese Fishing Cormorants.—Albatrosses.—Their capture. — Nesting-places.—- Battues.— Dangers of a calm.—Principle of flight . .
CHAPTER XIII. THE SANDWICH ISLAND GOOSE.
Stay-at-home travellers.—Home of the Sandwich Bernicle.— Natural disposition.—Its claims on our patronage.—Natural perfume.—Voice.—First historial notice.—Erroneous nomen- clature.—Obstinate pugnacity.—A parallel. Diet. — Weight. —Plumage.—Increase . : è k ‘ : .
CHAPTER XIV. CONCLUDING DIALOGUE.—THE NIGHTINGALE.
A country walk.—Local curiosities—An agreeable.surprise,— Limits of the Nightingale’s migrations.—Topographical caprice.— The ravisher of Nightingales.—Particulars of capture.—Subse- quent management.— Touching song and wakefulness of the bird. Antique notions.—Effects of a Nightingale diet.—Enter Bird- catcher.— Rural simplicity.—Diamond cut diamond.—The bird is caught, — Amount of its accomplishments.. Modes of causing their exhibition.—Conclusion . ; . : i
PAGE
. 402
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.
Pigeons differently constituted to other domestic birds.—Interest attached to €m.—Pets of childhood.—Paradoxical increase.—Effect of captivity on the
productiveness of some birds.—Beauty of the mete ae history.— me olive branch.—Arab legend.—Ancient domestication.—Feral pigeons.—
Omestic pigeons long established in America.—Not found among the Egyptian Monuments.—Ancient pigeon-fanciers.—Messenger birds.—Agents of super- Stition.—Misrepresentation.—Use during sieges.—Ancient pigeon-houses and fatting-places.—Cat a pigeon-fatter.—The Mosaic doves of the Capitol.—
"endship of the kestrel.—Charms for dovecotes,—Effectual attractions.— Patronizeg by commercial people.
Waar a wide gulph separates the Pigeons from all our other captive or domestic birds! How completely discrepant are all their modes of increasé ‘and action, their whole system of life, their very mind and affec- tions! Compare them with the gallinaceous tribes, and they scarcely seem to belong to the same class of beings.
hese walk the ground, those glide on air; these lazily Sorge and fatten at home, those traverse whole dis- tricts and orale wide seas to obtain) an independent Supply of nutriment. The Gallinacee are sensual and tyrannical ; ough: gallant and chivalrous, yet they are athless ; t y are pugnacious, even murderous; and fe-destroyers for the gratification of their appetite Merely. The Columbidae are amorous, beseeching, full of allectionate attachment, quarrelling solely in defence of eir mates or their young, content to subsist on fruits
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9 HABITS OF PIGEONS. [CHAP. I.
and grain, or tender herbs. Force, vanity, aggression, and greediness pertain to the one class; grace, agility, sentiment, devotion, and temperance to the other. The gallinaceous birds seem to be representatives of the fervid and selfish passions of the East; the Doves to have been created as types almost of Christian virtue. To suffer the onslaughts of the cruel; to bear, and, if possible, to escape, but neither to attack nor to revenge; to adhere to chastity, even when gratifying their natural affections; to submit to an equal division of the labour of tending the helpless young; to prefer a settled home to indulgence in capricious wanderings —these are a few out of the many attributes which have conciliated towards them the approving regard of mankind, and even perhaps caused them to be honoured by being mysteriously connected with some of the most meaning ceremonies and important events that are mentioned in sacred history.
And yet, at the present day, a love for Pigeons is considered rather low, a taste scarcely the thing to be indulged in, a study of a department of nature from which little can be learned, and, as a hobby, decidedly out of fashion. But any pursuit may be vulgarized and made the means of evil, by being taken up from base motives and in an unworthy manner ; and, on the other hand, even an indulgence in the Pigeon fancy may be so regulated and conducted as to afford interest and instruction to the young, and a healthy relaxation and matter for speculative inquiry to their seniors.
What boy, whose parents permitted him to keep ever so few pairs of Pigeons, forgets in after days the pleasing anxieties of which they were the source—the occupation for spare half-hours which they never failed
BOY PIGEON-KEEPERS. 2
CHAP, 1.] ‘0 afford? Well do we remember our first two pigeon- houses
of widely-diverse construction; the earliest contrivance being an old tea-chest fixed against a wall, with the complicated machinery of a falling Platform, or « trap,” in front, to be drawn up by a half- Penny-worth of string, so as to secure the inmates, or their Visitors, for a learned inspection; the second, a More ambitious piece of architecture, namely, a tub Mounted on the top of a short scaffold-pole, divided Mternally into apartments, each of some cubic inches capacity, and each with a little landing-place project- mg for the birds to alight upon, after their meal on the ground, or their circling exercise above the house- tops. And the wonderment to behold the process of xing this lofty structure firm and upright in its site i the back-yard! How the man dug an awful hole in tae ground, from which he could with difficulty shovel out the earth for the crowding, and the pushing, and the Peeping in of us children and the maids—how the tall structure was, by the combined efforts of all pre- Sent, slowly set upright—how three or four vast flint- Stones (rocks they seemed to us to be) were jammed in At the foot with a beetle borrowed from the paviour that Wed up a yard in our street—how, when earth and Pebbles had been duly added to make all smooth and tight, we retired a few yards and looked up with admi- *ation—and when at last the short ladder was brought wherewith to ascend, which we did without delay, and spect the lockers, Smeaton, gazing from the top of the Eddystone Lighthouse, or Stephenson darting on a comotive engine through the Menai Tube, might “joy a pride higher in degree, but not stronger in Mtenseness !
effort of
B 2
BOY PIGEON-KEEPERS. (CHAP. I.
And then, the strange events necessarily occurring to us. (The plural is used because no boy pigeon-keeper looks after his birds without a companion or two.) The severe countenance with which our neighbour and land- lord, hitherto beaming with benignant smiles, now greeted us as we were walking over the tiles of the outhouses in pursuit of an old “ Daffer” with a clipped wing ; the astonishment of a respectable shoe- maker on the other side of the street, to see a boy’s face peeping over the ridge of the opposite roof, with the air of Cortes surveying the Pacific Ocean from the summit of the Andes, rather than with the conscious- ness of being the mischievous urchin that he was; the arrival of a strange Pigeon with a sore and naked breast; the bold resolve to use decisive surgery, and to decapitate it, lest the evil should prove contagious; the trepidation of the maid who held the body, while we secured the head and wielded the fatal chopper; the universal horror that the body should flap, and flutter, and palpitate for a while after the operation was com- plete; the enigmatical illustration from English his- tory, “ King Charles walked and talked; half an hour after, his head was off,” uttered without proper pause at the semicolon or comma—these, and a whole chro- nicle full of such-like accidents, soon showed us that life, to the young, is an onward journey through an unexplored country, every step in which leads to some discovery, and opens to us a pleasant or a repulsive prospect. In maturer age, pitfalls, famishing deserts, and entangled wildernesses, or the flattering and de- ceptive mirage, showing signs of refreshing waters where drought alone exists, may await our advancing footsteps; or it may be our better fate to progress
——
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CHAP. 1] PARADOXICAL INCREASE. (9)
through glorious scenes, and mount to commanding eminences, still excited in either case by fresh and new adventure. Progressive must our journey ever Continue to be. Nor even in old age need our interest im the novelties of existence flag, if we have but duties and proper pursuits in this world, and a religious hope for the next.
But Pigeons are useful, not as mere pets for child- hood and diversions for men, but as affording, by their extraordinary and most paradoxical increase, a valuable Supply of food both to man and to other carnivorous Creatures. It seems strange that a creature which brings two at most at a birth, so to speak, should mul- tply rapidly into countless flocks ; and that the species Which is of all the most innumerable, darkening the Sky from one point of the horizon to the opposite visible verge, and stretching its living streams no one knows how many miles beyond it each way—small detachments from whose main army supply some of the American cities with poultry by cart-loads, till the mhabitants almost loathe the sight of the dish, good as it is, upon their tables—should yet lay no more than two, and frequently only a single egg, and Still more frequently rear but a single chick*, while
T My friend Dr. Bachman says, in a note sent to me, ‘In the More cultivated parts of the United States, the Passenger Pigeon no nger breeds in communities. I have secured many nests scattered seth pag the woods, seldom near each other, They were built 5 se to the stems of thin but tall pine trees (Pinus strobus), and
ere composed of a few sticks; the eggs invariably two, and white.’ ere is frequently but one young bird in the nest, probably from Ma loose manner in which it has been constructed, so that either a ape bird or an egg drops out. Indeed, I have foun l both at the "A a the tree. This is no doubt accidental, and not to be attri- ed to a habit which the bird may be supposed to have of throw-
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6 CAPTIVE BIRDS SOMETIMES LESS PROLIFIC. [cHApP. I.
the Partridge, the Turkey, the Guinea-fowl, and even the Hen, notwithstanding the multitudinous broods they lead forth, are not nearly so abundant, the closest approach to them among gallinaceous birds being per- haps made by the Quail. But a due attention to the growth, mode of rearing, and subsequent proceedings, of the young Pigeons go far to explain how so vast and anomalous a result is obtained from means apparently so inadequate, and which thus becomes less puzzling to us than the existence of immense flocks of Sea-fowl, of species which never lay but a single egg, and that only once a year. These, however, are probably much ‘in- debted for their numbers to their hardiness and lon- gevity, as well as to their security from serious perse- cution. The Pigeon, on the contrary, seems to have overspread the land in consequence of an innate force of reproductiveness with which it seems to have been purposely and providentially endowed for the sake of affording a suitable prey to the numerous fleshly ap- petites on earth and in air, of winged, quadruped, and reptile gluttons which are perpetually craving to be daily satisfied.
All this destiny of supplying meat to the eater would
ing out an egg or one of its young. I have frequently taken two from the same nest, and reared them. A curious change of habits has taken place in England in those Pigeons which I presented to the Harl of Derby in 1830, that nobleman having assured me that ever since they began breeding in his aviaries, they have laid only one egg.”—Audubon’s Orn. Biog. vol. v. p. 552. A similar de- creased number of eggs and young is frequently produced by other birds in captivity, as, for instance, sometimes in the Collared Turtle. A Canary hen, mated with a Linnet, has with me this summer (1849) laid a single egg, the young one from which she has reared with the anxiety and care usually bestowed upon only children. J have heard of other like cases of Canaries producing a solitary egg and young one.
CHAP. 1.) BEAUTY OF THE COLUMBIDS. 7 have been hopelessly baffled, had the young Pigeons required to be tended, and fed, and led about, and guarded like little Chickens, for months after their — birth; in this case, there would have been no living clouds consisting of millions of individuals, however humerous the hatch from each female might have been; but in the existing wise arrangement there is no waste, either of time or energetic force; the coupling of a Single male with a single female proves to be an economical plan, instead of the reverse, as those might be apt to fancy on whose thoughts the polygamous domestic Fowl so readily obtrudes itself: the help- lessness and indolence of the young for a time, are only made the means of their sooner becoming able not merely to shift for themselves, but, in their own Yapidly-arriving turn, to rear young for themselves. The details to be hereafter given will show how com- pletely and effectually this great end is carried out With the least possible expenditure of time and power. The forcing by gardeners, and the fattening by graziers, indeed all our artificial means of obtaining extra produce, take very second rank when we compare them with the Process by which a couple of eggs, in the course of a few weeks, are nursed into a pair of perfect creatures, Male and female, able to traverse long distances in Search of subsistence, and to fulfil the grand law, “ in- Crease and multiply.”
This alone would be wonderful; but to the innate energies implanted for useful and necessary ends, we find superadded a further quality—beauty. To the
eity alone do works of supererogation belong: He Sives what is needful with a paternal liberality, and then is lavish of his bounty, and bestows ornament and
BEAUTY OF THE COLUMBIDA. [CHAP. I.
decoration upon his creatures. There can scarcely be a doubt that many of the appendages to the plumage of birds, not to say a word about brilliant colours, are given not for any use, or to serve the performance of any function in the economy of the creatures, but solely for appearance sake, a fact of which they them- selves manifest a consciousness. Innumerable instances of this might be adduced, but a less well-known ex- ample is seen in the brilliant assemblage of Humming- birds collected by Mr. Gould, and now under the course of illustration by that gentleman, with his usual great artistic and ornithological ability. One, perhaps several, species, in addition to the parts which usually reflect the most dazzling and glancing hues, has the very under tail-coverts metallic. In most birds, colours so disposed would be little if at all observed; but in these Humming-birds the flight is so abrupt, and the motions so sharply checked and reversed, very much by the action of the tail, that the metallic feathers are sud- denly seen, like a momentary star, which as suddenly vanishes, and which marks, by its appearance and ex- tinction, the sparkling turns in the zig-zag course which the flashing bird pursues through the sun- shine.
And the Pigeons, too, have their amethystine necks, and their metallic plumage, either whole or partial ; sometimes a complete panoply of blazing scales, occa- sionally a few patches of bronze and tinsel on the wings. Crests, too, in others, are added to give grace to the head, and voices, if not melodious, yet most expressive, which is better far. In form and motion we have everything that is charming and attractive, either in repose or activity. Even in the individuals
CHAR. 1. EARLIEST HISTORY. 9
destined for homely uses there is so much that is lovely and pleasing, that we often spare their lives in order to Continue a little longer to admire their beauty and Protect their gentleness. Each in its kind has its own Special grace: there is the decorous Nun, the gro- tesquely-strutting Powter, the comely Turbit, the gay and frisky Tumbler, the stately Swan-like Fantail. In any account of so varied and yet so closely related a family, it will clearly be advisable to endeavour to pro- duce something like a historic sketch, before proceeding to details respecting either distinct species or their Supposed varieties.
. The first mention of Pigeons to be met with is found in the Holy Scriptures. .
` “And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had Made. And he sent forth a raven, which went to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark; for the waters were upon the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came in w him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters Were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.”*
* Genesis vili. 6-12.
EER NY om
Se SRN “ensues
career rarer
eas SEE
I i ii 1 i ii | j + a bi 2j
_—
10 THE OLIVE-BRANCH. (CHAP. I.
We have here quoted the very earliest record of the Dove. The species mentioned is without doubt the blue Rock Dove, one of our common Dovehouse Pigeons *. The olive-branch, say Biblical notes, probably from some obscure rumour of this event, has generally been the emblem of peace; but, what is curious, we hear that in countries where scarcely the remotest tradition can have penetrated, a like token is similarly recognised. The sparse foliage of many Australian shrubs bears a faint resemblance to that peculiar to the olive, both in its sombre hue, and the little shade it affords. And Cap- tain Sturt, when exploring the course of the Murray River, found that tribes of natives, who, if they had heard of white men, had evidently never before seen any, traditionally, or perhaps instinctively, compre- hended the spirit of peace denoted by the offered
~ branch.
In ancient Egypt, on the cessation of war, the troops Were required to attend during the performance of pre- scribed religious ceremonies, when each soldier carried in his hand a twig of some tree, probably olive, with the arms of his peculiar corps. “ A judicious remark has been made by Mr. Bankes respecting the choice of the olive as the emblem of peace. After the devasta- tion of a country by hostile invasion, and the consequent neglect of its culture, no plantation requires a longer period to restore its previously flourishing condition than the olive grove; and this tree may therefore have been appropriately selected as the representative of
* In the “ Hierozoici” of Bochart, lib. i. cap. vi., is a laborious essay, “ De Columba Noachi, et de Columb specie que in Baptismo Christi apparuit.”
CHAP, 1,] ARAB LEGEND. 11
peace *. There is, however, reason to suppose that its emblematic character did not originate in Greece, but that it dated from a far more remote period; and the tranquillity and habitable state of the earth were an- nounced to the ark through the same token.
“ The Arabs have an amusing legend respecting the Dove or Pigeon. The first time it returned with the olive-branch, but without any indication of the state of the earth itself; but on its second visit to the ark, the ted appearance of, its feet proved that the red mud on Which it had walked was already freed from the waters ; and to record the event, Noah prayed that the feet of these birds might for ever continue of that colour, which marks them to the present day. The similarity of the Hebrew words ‘adoom,’ red, ‘admeh,’ earth, and ‘Adm,’ Adam, is remarkable. A ‘man’ is still called «A’dam’ in Turkish.”}
The learned Bochart correctly remarks, that the Holy Scriptures rarely mention the clean birds, with the sole exception of Doves and Pigeons, respecting which more particulars are to be found than of all the others put together. The extreme antiquity of their domestication may be inferred from their employment m the patriarchal sacrifices; indeed it appears to be Coeval with that of the ox and the sheep: thus, in Genesis xv. 9, the command given to Abraham is, “ Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a
*“ Pacifereeque manu ramum pretendit olivæ.”— Virg. Æn. viii.118.
“€ Resolve me, strangers, whence, and what you are; Your business here; and bring you peace or war?’ High on the stern Æneas took his stand,
And held a branch of olive in his hand, While thus he spoke—”
t Sir J. G. Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. pp. 401, 2.
i a RS
ANCIENT DOMESTICATION, (CHAP. I.
turtle dove, and a young pigeon.” In Leviticus i., where the offerings of the domesticated creatures of the Israelites are particularized, at verse 14 it is ordered, “And if the burnt-sacrifice, for his offering to the Lord, be of fowls; then he shall bring his offering of turtle-doves, or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar: and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar. And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar, on the east part, by the place of the ashes. And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet Savour unto the Lord.” In the same book, chap. v. 7, we find, “ And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath com- mitted, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the Lord.” Similar mention of the Pigeon and the Turtle- Dove is made at xii. 6; xiv. 22; xv. 14,29; and in Numbers vi. 10. Birds appear to have been the sacri- fice of the poor, as cattle, sheep, and goats were of the
wealthy. There can be little doubt that the Turtle- Doves were the Collared Turtles known to us; being kept in cages, they and young pigeons would always be at hand; whereas the common European Turtle, a wild and migratory bird, could only be had at certain sea- sons, and even then only according to the chance suc- cess of the fowler, fire-arms not yet affording a sure means of capture: for the way in which Turtle-Dovyeg are thus spoken of, as equivalent to Pigeons, and as if always obtainable, shows plainly, I think, that the for.
CHAP. 1.] ANCIENT DOMESTICATION. 13
mer bird was not the common wild Turtle, which to this day continues to be a free and unreclaimed ranger of the old world, but the Collared Turtle, which makes itself so much at home, and breeds so freely whilst in Captivity to man. | Another notice occurs in Isaiah lx. 8 :—“ Who are , these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their Windows?” The passage establishes the domestication | of the Rock Pigeon at that early epoch. The “ win- dows” are clearly the apertures in a dovecote; and every reader will remember that windows in the East are Seldom glazed entrances for light merely, as with us, but are openings to admit air principally, and the sun’s rays as little as possible ; and when closed, are done so by lattice work, or shutters, as in pigeon-lofts here: so that the expression “ windows” is very appropriate to denote the means of approach to the creatures’ dwelling- place. The Rock Dove, then, had already become domesti- Cated, as a Dovehouse Pigeon, in patriarchal times. t seems almost as if the bird had been created with an innate disposition to attach itself to, and take possession of, as its tenement, all convenient caves, rocks, or unoc- “upied buildings, so as to be at once ready to afford a Subsidiary supply of animal food to the increasing family of man. It is not in a highly cultivated and thickly populated country like England that the value of Pigeons, as provision, is perceived. In such Places they are destroyed and lost, if allowed to follow their natural instinct of ranging far and wide to obtain their Subsistence ; independence and industry are the qualities that constitute their value as live stock. Hence they would deserve far more consideration from the
14 FERAL PIGEONS [CHAP. I.
early settlers, either in remote ages, or in a new coun- try, than they can obtain where population is thick and agriculture advanced. A dovecote, planted by the emi- grant close by his hut in the back woods, might often afford a meal when game was shy and scarce, or other stock too valuable to kill. And thus the transfer of the Rock Dove from the home afforded by nature, to the abode reared and provided by man, seems, like the case of bees, to have been a most easy change to effect. We all remember the beautiful passage in Virgil, de- scribing the Pigeon disturbed from her nest in the cavern. We often see how soon ruined buildings, especially windmills, become tenanted by Pigeons, about which it is hard to decide whether they are re- claimed from the cliffs, or are deserters from the dove- cote. A return to this semi-wild state is by no means uncommon in other countries as well as in our own. Mr. Gould informs me that domestic Pigeons are abun- dantly dispersed over every colonized part of Australia; and in some districts, particularly in Norfolk Island, have taken to the rocks, and quite assumed the habits of the wild Rock Dove of our own island.
In India, exactly the same half-wild disposition is similarly manifested. Some of the details of Captain Mundy’s deseription of the Black Pagoda or Temple of the Sun, read to us as if he were rummaging the dove- cote of an old manorial residence in England. “ My- riads of wild pigeons and bats occupy the dark interior of#tite lofty cupola. . . . The thunder-threatening closeness of the atmosphere having completely spoiled our imported provisions, in the afternoon we took post on each side of the temple with our guns, and sending in a domestic to drive out the immense flocks of pigeons,
CHAP, 1.] ESTABLISHED IN AMERICA. 15
Soon provided ourselves with an extempore dinner, be- Sides the enjoyment of half an hour’s very pretty prac- tice.”
It is very probable that, before many years have elapsed, we shall have similar accounts, from sporting tourists in the New World, of shooting scenes in which the very same species, the feral Columba livia, or Dove- house Pigeon returned to an independent condition, Plays the principal part as victim and target for fowling- Piece practice. It is strange if there are not already Some self-emancipated pairs tenanting the rocks along the course of the Hudson. “In the United States,” Mr. Thos. S. Woodcock says, “ I can speak from per- Sonal observation, that Fancy Pigeons are cultivated in great variety. I knew one person in New York, and another in Brooklyn, who had large collections. The Carrier was employed there extensively before the in- troduction of the electric telegraph, and I presume that all have been introduced a long time, probably by the earliest colonists, for no one ever thought them novel. We once had a lot exhibited at our Brooklyn Society, but they were merely shown as fine specimens, not on account of their being any rarity. The domestic Pigeon is quite common, and the very young birds
brought to market for sale, as with us in England.” oa The little or no variation from the wild type which `
the half-wild blue Rock Pigeon (as such) has un-
dergone in this long succession of ages, is really re-
markable, and ought to have its full weight in the con-
Sideration of the question as to the origin of the fancy
kinds, We are quite justified in believing that the
blue Rock Pigeon never was more wild than it is at * Pen and Pencil Sketches, vol. ii. p. 273.
ai
16 | NOT FOUND IN EGYPTIAN PAINTINGS. [cwap: I.
present; and that from its very first joint occupancy of the earth in company with man, it was always as ready to avail itself of any fit asylum and nesting-place which he afforded it—perhaps more so, in consequence of the greater number of rapacious birds existing in early times —and always equally ready to return to the rocks and caves when it felt any occasional disgust to its adopted home. Unless the external appearance of the wild bird has altered at the same time with that of the tame one, but little change has taken place in this respect. The beautiful wood-cut of the Columba livia, which Mr. Yarrell gives in his “ British Birds,” might pass for a well-selected specimen of the Blue Rock Devehouse Pigeon. i
Fancy Pigeons, as distinguished from the Dovehouse kinds that were reared for the table, seem to have been known from a very early epoch. It may be believed that we hear less of the different sorts then cultivated and most in favour, in consequence of the merits of all the others being so much thrown into the shade by the superior value and usefulness of those employed as letter-carriers.
To save trouble to future archeological poultry fan- ciers, we will quote a few words from Sir J. G. Wilkin- son: “ It is remarkable that the camel, though known to have been used in, and probably a native of Egypt, as early at least as the time of Abraham (the Bible dis- tinctly stating it to have been among the presents given by Pharaoh to the patriarch), has never yet been met with in the paintings or hieroglyphics. We cannot, how- ever, infer, from our finding no representation or notice of it, that it was rare in any part of the country, since the same would apply to poultry, which, it is scarcely
x. pa ge ot ‘$ A a F
ta i
CHAP. 1,] ANOTENT PIGEON-FANCIERS. = AT
necessary to observe, was always abundant in Egypt; for no instance occurs in the sculptures of fowls or
Pigeons among the stock of the farm-yard, though geese / are repeatedly introduced, and numbered in the presence —
of the stewards.” *
Aristotle appears to intend to confine himself to the description of the wild species of Pigeon only, and mentions five corresponding with those now seen in Europe and Western Asia; but in the classical period they are repeatedly spoken of as well known, and no novelty, only dear; just as choice Almond Tumblers and Powters were with us twenty or thirty years ago, when they were more the fashion than they are at this moment; and as Bronze-wings, Crowned Pigeons, and other foreign rarities still are, and will be, till they Merease more rapidly. A few slight hints on the pecu- liarities of these old kinds are here and there to be picked up. Thus we learn from Columella (viii. 8), that the Alexandrine and Campanian Pigeons were, alieni generis, distinct breeds, and not advisable to Couple together. Pliny tells us that the latter were the largest of Pigeons, Runts, in fact; we may therefore Suppose that the taste of the Alexandrian fanciers was More in favour of the smaller kinds, such as the Tumblers, or the Nuns—an old-established race, and no doubt much more ancient than their Christian namesakes.
It is commonly taken for granted that the Pigeon
ancy is a modern taste; but it is clear, from many Passages in the classics, that a number of different sorts Were cultivated by the ancients, though we have fewer
* Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 35.
| | i
at 1 f i 4 A
TE
=
ANCIENT PIGEON-FANCIERS. [CHAP. I.
particulars respecting the special characteristics of the varieties then in vogue, than we have of their domestic Fowls. Columella is scandalised at the inveteracy and extravagance of the Pigeon Fancy amongst his contem- poraries. “ That excellent author, M. Varro, recorded even in his more severe age, that single pairs were usually sold for 8/. 1s. bad. each. For it is the shame of our age, if we choose to believe it, that. persons should be found to purchase a couple of birds at the price of 32], 5s. 10d.* ; although I should think those persons more bearable, who expend a heavy amount of brass and silver, for the sake of possessing and keeping the object of fancy wherewith to amuse their leisure, than those who exhaust the Pontic Phasis (for Pheasants to eat), and the Scythian lakes of Meeotis (for a fish dinner). Yet even in this aviary, as it is called, the luxurious process of fatting can be car- vied on; for if any birds happen to be sterile, or of a bad colour, they are crammed in the same way as Hens.” +
Pliny also records the prevalence of a Pigeon mania amongst the Romans. “And many are mad with the love of these birds; they build towers for them on the tops of their roof, and will relate the high breeding and ancestry of each, after the ancient fashion. Before Pompey’s civil war, L. Axius, a Roman knight,
is One always feels uncertain and doubtful of accuracy when converting ancient monies to the modern standard 3 but Columella would indeed þe indignant could he know the prices now paid for rare birds and animals. Mr. Jamrach told me that he had sold a pair of the large blue Crowned Indian Pigeons for 60/., and Mr. Yarrell informed me that the market price of a really fine Tiger is 4007. <A pair of the Impeyan Lophophorus were, in the autumn of 1848, and may still be, worth 100i. sterling.
t Lib. viii. cap. 8.
CHAP, 1.] MESSENGER BIRDS. 19
used to sell a single pair of Pigeons denariis quadrin- gentis, for four hundred denarii.”* Ainsworthsets down the denarius at 72d., so that the price of these birds Was 12. 18s. 4d., which is not so much out of the way, if they were really good.
lian, too, familiarly mentions the distinction be- tween wild and tame Pigeons.—‘ Doves in towns live ™ society with man, and are very tame, and crowd about one’s feet; but in desert places they fly away, and do not await the approach of men.” +
But it is as letter-carriers that Pigeons have obtained
the greatest celebrity among the ancients, and of their Services in this capacity we find very frequent and interesting mention. The practice seems to have been adopted in remote times, in modes, and upon occasions, the exact counterpart of those which call forth the Powers of the bird at the present day. How likely is it that the Patriarchs, remembering the tradition of the ark, in their search for fresh pasture at a distance from the main body of their tribe, may have taken with them a few pigeons to be flown from time to time, and carry
Ome news of the proceedings of the exploring party.
uring the last few years, the invention of the Electric
elegraph has done more to bring Carrier Pigeons into partial disuse than had been effected in the three thousand years previous. Whether the bird so em- Ployed in early ages was identical with our Carrier does not appear; but, until something to the contrary is Proved, we may be permitted to assume that it was the ‘ame in every respect.
Varro writes, “ It may be observed, that the habit of
18e0ns is to return to their home, because many per-
* Lib. x, 53. + Anecdotes of Animals, Book iii, 15.
c 2
n eee - ra.
[ies ee
SS RRP STORE a
i : f j a il fi Hy |
Se e
SS
MESSENGER BIRDS. [CHAP. I.
sons throw them off from their lap in the (roofless) theatre, and they return home:” he innocently adds, “ they would not be thrown off unless they did return home.” And thus Pigeons, which once used to carry off the name of a victorious gladiator, have since that time been made to announce the result of the less fatal en- counter of a pair of pugilists.
Some of the learned are of opinion, that this old Roman practice of sending Pigeons off from the crowded amphitheatre, from seats which it was not always pos- sible for the occupier to quit at pleasure, and of making them carry home the news, or the wishes and orders of their owner, is the very origin of the custom, and gave the hint to Brutus and others to avail themselves of Pigeons as messengers in more important affairs. But they seem to have forgotten that, long before the age in which Varro lived, the ancients made use of letter- carrying Pigeons, when they went any distance from home, as the most certain means of conveying intelli- gence back; and that, in the sixth century before Christ, Anacreon wrote the Ode which has been so beautifully translated by Thomas Moore :—
“ Tell me, why, my sweetest dove, Thus your humid pinions move, Shedding through the air in showers Essence of the balmiest flowers ? Tell me whither, whence you rove, Tell me all, my sweetest dove.”
“ Curious stranger ! I belong To the bard of Teian song ; With his mandate now I fly To the nymph of azure eye ; Ah! that eye has madden’d many, But the poet more than any !
CHAP, 1.) AGENTS OF SUPERSTITION. 21
Venus, for a hymn of love Warbled in her votive grove,
CT was in sooth a gentle day,) Gave me to the bard away.
See me now his faithful minion; Thus with softly-gliding pinion, To his lovely girl I bear
Songs of passion through the air.”
The birds which had been found so subservient as Messengers of love were likely to be employed as ac- cessories to the commission of witchcraft; and Ælian Sives us reason to suspect, that many of the marvel- Ous revelations of second sight, at least, may be ex- plained by supposing the seers to have employed the agency of Carrier Pigeons.
_ Some say that the victory of Taurosthenes at Olym- Pla was made known in one day to his father, at Aigina,
a 3 vision: but others say, that Taurosthenes carried a Pigeon away with him, making her leave her young ones Still tender and unfledged, and that having obtained the “ictory, he sent off the bird, after attaching a piece of Something purple to her; and that she, hastening to her Young, returned in one day from Pissa to Ægina.” * It is be here noted that Ælian uses the SYNONYMS wegiorega and z sæ to denote the same individual bird.
In his treatise on Animals, Book iv. 2, there is another curious story of Pigeons being absent for a {me: from their haunts in Eryce in Sicily, where was a famous temple of Venus, and of their being regu- larly led back after a stated interval, by a purple rog- Pree Dove, The tale is unintelligible, unless we sup-
* Var. Hist. ix. 2.
99 AGENTS OF SUPERSTITION. [CHAP. I.
pose that a Carrier was made the engine of priestcraft, by having its flight made to coincide with the migra- tions of any wild species of Columba.
The ancient oracles also enlisted Pigeons into their service. Lempriere informs us respecting the famous temple at Dodona, that “ two black doves, as Strabo relates, took their flight from the city of Thebes in Egypt, one of which flew to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and the other to Dodona, where with a human voice they acquainted the inhabitants of the country that Jupiter had consecrated the ground, which in future would give oracles. The extensive grove which surrounded Jupiter’s temple was endued with the gift of prophecy, and oracles were frequently delivered by the sacred oaks, and the Doves which inhabited the place.” And it is in allusion to such sacred birds that Ælian writes, “ A Locust implicated the Ephe- sians and the Magnete in war with each other, and a Pigeon the Chaonians and Illyrians.”* There was a wood near Chaonia where Doves were said to de- liver oracles; but Ovid} records that the birds in question were not Wood Pigeons.
“ Quasque colat turres Chaonis ales habet.” “ And the bird of Chaonia has towers wherein to dwell.”
The killing of a Stork would still incite a riot in many countries, and the destruction of Robins is yet regarded with as much indignation in England, as the slaughter of Doves was in Chaonia.
Xenophon, Ctesias, Lucian, and other cotemporary witnesses assert, that the Syrians and the Assyrians either worshipped Pigeons and Doves, or at least ab-
* Nat. Anim. xi. 27, + A. Am. ii, 150.
CHAP. L] MISREPRESENTATION. 23 Stained from them as being of a sacred nature. How this Superstition was introduced into Syria or Assyria, 18 not known; but it is curious that the Russians, as we are informed by Mr. Yarrell, should at this day re- gard them with similar forbearance and even venera- tion; and we can hardly avoid guessing that the feel- mg must be founded on some most ancient tradition current amongst the Sclavonic races.
The great modern instance in which the Pigeon has been made the tool of religious imposture, is the tale, generally supposed to be forged, of the Dove which was Said to be always seated on the shoulder of Mahomet, communicating past, present, and coming events to the false prophet. Butan able writer in the “ Edinburgh
eview” considers the story to be a simple misinter- pretation consequent upon putting a literal construction upon an imperfect pictorial representation :—“ The great teachers of the Church had been held, not with- Sut reason, to have derived their wisdom from above. In order to call attention to this accredited doctrine, artists placed the holy emblem of the Dove upon the Shoulder of each spiritually enlightened father. Some- times the bird was drawn in the very act of whispering Wisdom into the sage’s ear. The people had learned What was meant by the juxtaposition of one of the per- Sons of the Trinity and the Dove; but they were con- fused and deceived by the same personification, in connexion with a well-known doctor, or a pope. They Consequently soon put a literal construction upon it.
he rumour ran, that these holy men had been at- tended each by his inspiring Dove; and the writer of legends, who must often have been driven hard for facts, Sladly accepted a tale already sanctioned by popular
USE DURING SIEGES. [CHAP.1I.
belief. Thus were the legends enriched by the poverty of art. This tale is told of St. Thomas Aquinas, of St. Basil, of St. Gregory the Great, of St. Hilary of Arles, of eight other saints of less mark and note; and, finally, we may add, of Mahomet.” *
Warfare has, however, given the most frequent occa- sion for the employment of Carrier Pigeons. The clever contrivance of Brutus is thus mentioned by Pliny, and we quote it, although it is a well-known passage, and has even had the honour of being para- phrased in verse :—“ But they have also been used as messengers in important matters: during the siege of Mutina, Decius Brutus sent letters tied to their feet into the camp of the Consuls. What service did Anthony derive from his trenches, and his vigilant block- ade, and even from his nets stretched across the river, while the winged messenger was traversing the air?” }
But the winged messenger, like every other human instrument, sometimes fails to execute its office, as the worthy Fuller tells us in his “ Historie of the Holy Warre.” The Christians “ began the siege of the citie of Jerusalem on the North (being scarce assaultable on any other side by reason of steep and broken rocks), and continued it with great valour. On the fourth day after, they had taken it, but for want of scaling-ladders. Nearer than seven miles off, there grew no stick of bignesse. I will not say, that since our Saviour was hanged on a tree, the land about that citie hath been cursed with a barrenness of wood. As for the Chris- tians’ want of ladders, that was quickly supplied: for the Genoans arriving with a fleet in Palestine,
* Edinburgh Review, April, 1849, p. 385. + Lib. x. 53.
CHAP. 1.] USE DURING SIEGES. 25
brought most curious engineers, who framed a wooden towre, and all other artificiall instruments. For we must not think, that the world was at a losse for warre- tools before the brood of guns was hatched. And now for a preparative, that their courage might work the better, they began with a fast, and a solemn procession about mount Olivet.
“ Next day they gave a fierce assault; yea, women played the men, and fought most valiently in armour. But they within being fourty thousand strong, well victualled and appointed, made stout resistance, till the night (accounted but a foe for her friendship) umpired betwixt them, and abruptly put an end to their fight in the midst of their courage.
“ When the first light brought news of a morning, they on afresh; the rather, because they had intercepted a letter tied to the legs of a dove (it being the fashion of that country, both to write and send their letters with the wings of a fowl), wherein the Persian Emperour pro- mised present succours to the besieged. The Turks cased the outside of their walls with bags of chaff, straw, and such-like pliable matter, which conquered the engines of the Christians by yeelding unto them. As for one sturdie engine whose force would not be tamed, they brought two old witches on the walls to mechant it: but the spirit thereof was too strong for their spells, so that both of them were miserably slain m the place.” *
Thus the intercepted Dove and the suborned old Witches were each working an antagonistic counter-spell, till the Satanic influence was finally made to succumb.
* Book i. chap. 24.
96 ANCIENT PIGEON-HOUSES [CHAP. I.
Mr. Rogers has given us a companion picture to the foregoing, expressed in a different form, but equally interesting. His exquisite lines are founded on the anecdote, from Thuanus, lib. iv. c. 5, that during the siege of Harlem, when that city was reduced to the last extremity, and on the point of opening its gates to a base and barbarous enemy, a design was formed to relieve it; and the intelligence conveyed to the citizens by a letter which was tied under the wing of a Pigeon. The Poet naturally and feelingly asks,
“ Led by what chart, transports the timid dove The wreaths of conquest, or the vows of love ? Say, thro’ the clouds what compass points her flight ? Monarchs have gazed, and nations blessed the sight. Pile rocks on rocks, bid woods and mountains rise, Eclipse her native shades, her native skies— Tis vain ! through Ether’s pathless wilds she goes, And lights at last where all her cares repose.
“ Sweet bird ! thy truth shall Harlem’s walls attest, And unborn ages consecrate thy nest. When, with the silent energy of grief, With looks that asked, yet dared not hope relief, Want with her babes round generous Valour clung, To wring the slow surrender from his tongue, *T was thine to animate her closing eye ; Alas! ’t was thine perchance the first to die, Crushed by her meagre hand, when welcomed from the sky.” The Pleasures of Memory, Part I.
But it is now time to retrace our steps, and return to the Pigeons of a remoter age.
The accommodations provided for Pigeons in ancient times could not have widely differed from those of the present day. Many of those birds which are most tame- able, and show the greatest inclination for human so-
CHAP. L] AND FATTING-PLACES. Q7
ciety and neighbourhood, rarely perch upon trees, but regard rocks and buildings, especially those that are ancient or ruined, as if they were one and the same thing, or as if shifting their haunts from one to the other was but a natural step. A wild Cormorant, that most docile of birds, has been known to alight on the grey battlements of King’s College, Cambridge, mis- taking them for the pinnacles of hoary rocks; and so the Rock Dove, or blue Dovehouse Pigeon, for these are identical, may be known from the Stock-dove by its seldom or never perching upon branches. Thus in Jeremiah xlviii. 28: “ O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the Dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.” The Doves that “ fly to their windows,” in Isaiah, had only made an instinctive change of abode: and the Chaonian towers above-mentioned were, we should say, tenanted by a set of birds whom a very slight affront would have driven back into the wilderness.
The Romans kept domestic Pigeons very much in the same way that we do; and in addition to this were in the habit of catching the wild species, such as the Ring Dove and the Common Turtle, and fatting them in confinement as we do Quails and Ortolans.
“The attempt to breed Turtles is superfluous: for |
that genus neither lays nor hatches in an aviary. As
soon as it is caught from the wild state, it is destined i
to be crammed, and that with less trouble than other birds are fatted, but not at all seasons. In the winter, although pains be taken, it is with difficulty made to thrive: and yet, because Thrushes are then in greater plenty, the price of Turtles is lower. In the Summer again it most readily fattens, so there is but plenty of
SSS en,
a -
One
| |
98 CATO A PIGEON-FATTER. [CHAP. I,
food : for it is only necessary that food should be thrown before them, but especially millet: not that they gather less flesh upon wheat or other grain, but because they are exceedingly fond of this seed. The fatting-places for them are not, as for Pigeons, lockers or hollow cells : but brackets, fixed in line along the wall, hold little hempen mats, nets being stretched over them to pre- vent their flying, which would diminish their fleshiness. In these places they are assiduously fed with millet or wheat: but those seeds ought only to be given in a dry state. Half a bushel (semodius) of food each day suffices for a hundred-and twenty Turtles. Water con- stantly fresh, and as clean as possible, is given in the same vessels as are used for Pigeons and Hens; and the mats are cleaned lest the dung should burn their feet, which, however, ought to be carefully laid aside for the culture of the fields and the trees, as ought that of all except the water birds. This bird is not so suitable for fatting in its adult state, as when very young. Therefore about harvest, when the brood has got strength, is the time to choose.”*
Even the severe Cato could advise a troublesome method of fatting Wood Pigeons. He was military tribune B.c. 189. His work on agriculture is a collec- tion of receipts rather than a complete treatise, but is always respectfully referred to by other Roman writers on agriculture. We give the original passage as a curious specimen of Latinity, and of a style which would not be allowed to pass current in a university prize essay : —‘Palumbum recentem ut prensus erit, ei fabam coc- tam tostam primum dato ; ex ore in ejus os inflato item
* Columella, viii. 9, our own translation.
CHAP. 1.] THE DOVES OF THE CAPITOL. 29
aquam, hoe dies vii. facito. Postea fabam fresam puram, et far purum facito, et fabe tertia pars ut infervescat, cum far insipiat, puriter facito, et coquito bene, id ubi excoxeris depsito bene, oleo manum unguito, primum pusillum, postea magis depses, oleo tangito depsitoque, dum poteris facere turundas, ex aqua dato, escam tem- perato.”—* When a Wood Pigeon is fresh caught, first give it roasted beans. From your mouth blow them into its mouth, also water. This do for seven days. Afterwards bruise unmixed beans, and make pure meal, and let a third part be of beans, that it may be hot. When the meal becomes unsavoury, make it up cleanly, and cook it well. When you have thoroughly cooked it, knead it well, grease your hand with oil; first knead a little, then more; touch with oil and knead, whilst you shall be able to make it into pellets, give it out of water, mix the food.” *
A charming scrap of evidence of the favour which these birds enjoyed as ornamental pets amongst the ancients, is seen in the famous mosaic in the Hall of the Vase, at the Capitol Museum at Rome. Many a lady wears a reduced copy of this most graceful compo- Sition, in the shape of a cameo brooch or bracelet, Without being aware of the interesting antiquity of the original design. Murray's excellent “ Handbook for Central Italy,” p. 488, thus describes it:— 101. The celebrated mosaic of Pliny’s Doves, one of the finest and most perfectly preserved specimens of ancient Mosaic. It represents four doves drinking, with a beautiful border surrounding the composition. It is - Supposed to be the mosaic of Sosus, described by Pliny
* Chap. xe.
30 FRIENDSHIP OF THE KESTREL. (CHAP. I.
in his thirty-fifth book, as a proof of the perfection to which the art had been carried in his day. He says, that there is at Pergamos a wonderful specimen of a Dove drinking, and darkening the water with the shadow of her head ; on the lip of the vessel others are pluming themselves. ‘Mirabilis ibi- columba bibens, -et aquam umbra capitis infuscans. Apricantur alice scabentes sese in cathari labro’ It was found in Hadrian’s villa in 1737, by Cardinal Furietti, from whom it was purchased by Clement XIII.”
The tutelary patronage and grateful friendship sup- posed to subsist between the Kestrel Hawk and the Pigeon, ought not to be omitted in any account of the Doves of yore. Pliny writes, “ Speculatur occultus fronde latro, et gaudentem (columbam) in ips gloria rapit.” — “The thievish Falcon watches under his covert of leaves, and seizes the rejoicing bird in its very pride.” We have elsewhere noticed how trouble- some the predacious birds seem to have been in Italy, during the times when northern Europe was less thickly inhabited than it is at present. ‘Wherefore, the bird which is called tinunculus, or Kestrel, should be kept with them; for it defends them, and frightens Hawks by a natural power to such a degree that they avoid the sight and sound of it. On this account, Pigeons regard them with especial love. And they say, that if they be buried in four corners of the pigeon-house in fresh- painted earthen vessels, the Pigeons will not shift their habitation—a result which some have endeavoured to obtain by cutting the joints of their wings with a golden knife, wounds otherwise inflicted not being harmless—and the bird being besides much of a vagrant; for it is their artifice to wheedle and corrupt
CHAP. 1] CHARMS FOR DOVECOTES. 91
each other, and furtively to return home with a party of followers.” *
Columella, equally anxious that the dovecote should not be deserted, suggests rational means of keeping the birds at home, at the same time that he does not forget the Kestrel. “But their place ought to be frequently swept out and cleansed, for the neater it is kept, the more delight will the birds appear to take in it; and so fastidious are they, that if they have the liberty they will often leave their own home in disgust, which fre- quently happens in those districts where they are allowed free egress. The old precept teaches how to prevent that misfortune. A sort of Hawk is called by the country people tinunculus: the young of this bird are shut up in éarthen vessels, one in each, and closed in alive; the vessels are smeared with plaster, and suspended in the corners of the pigeon- house, by which means the birds are so attached to the Place that they never desert it.” }
It may be supposed that if the Kestrel does drive off larger birds of prey, it is with the motive of protecting his own household rather than that of the Pigeons, although they may be the more secure for the temporary truce. But other potent charms for the increase of Columbine prosperity have had their advocates: one worthy recommends the skull of an old man to be hung up in the dove-house, thereby causing the Pigeons to multiply and remain quietly at home; another has faith in hanging a piece of the thong or halter with which a man has been strangled, from each window (per omnes fenestras), which those may try who are careless about
* Pliny’s Hist. x. 52. + Columella, viii. 8.
EFFECTUAL ATTRACTIONS. (CHAP. I.
their character for sanity. A less absurd recipe, of the same date, is a goat's head, stewed down with plenty of cummin and salt, to which some add burnt clay, urine, coriander, hempseed, honey, and substitute the herb tragus (He Goat), if we could discover what that is, for the stewed goat’s head ; in short, making the regular salt cat, which the trappists (not ecclesiastical) of the present day know to be so irresistible a bait for stray birds. But the great bond of attachment is to make their home comfortable, of which Temminck gives an in- structive instance. The proprietors of a farm went to occupy it themselves, after it had been held bya tenant for a lease of nine years: they had left the pigeon- house amply stocked, but they found it deserted, dis- mantled, filthy, and occupied by every enemy of the poor fugitives. They took no further pains than to whitewash the pigeon-house within and without, to restore the dilapidations of the interior, to have it cleaned out perfectly, and to keep abundance of water and salt therein. The pigeon-house was replenished with birds as if by enchantment; so much so, that when the owners again quitted their estate, there were more than a hundred and fifty pairs of Pigeons, which, moreover, were supplied with scarcely any food. Three years was all the time required to work this change, and even to attract deserters from the pigeon-houses for three miles round. Rational means succeeded better than all the charms and conjurations of Thessaly, and the French land-owner may exculpate himself almost in the words of Othello, from all malpractices with “ spells and medicines bought of mountebanks :”— “ Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble, and approved good masters,
ne TN A RTT I rn
CHAP. I.] > PATRONIZED BY COMMERCE. 33
That I have ta’en away another’s pigeons
It is most true; true they do flock to me;
The very head and front of my offending,
Hath this extent, no more. Yet, by your leave,
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
Of my whole management; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magick
(For such proceeding I am charged withal),
I won the pigeons with a
This is the only witchcraft I have used, Here come the pigeons, let them witness it.”
But these passages remind us that we are somewhat anticipating what we have to say respecting the habits and disposition of the true Dove-house Pigeon, as differ- ing from the other sorts kept in a domestic state. From the ancients the pursuit of Pigeon-fancying seems to have descended to the Dutch, as it is likely that it would to such a wealthy, commercial, and observant people. In old times, we are told, at least every fourth Dutchman was a Pigeon-fancier. They were also dili- gent hunters out, and importers of new kinds; so that what Pliny said of the Romans may be affirmed of the — Dutch, i. e., that they were mad after Pigeons. Venice also, RANSA mercantile state, had opportunities of ob- taining new kinds, which were zealously cultivated. But this chapter has already exceeded its due limits : and the reader shall at once be introduced to the
habits of increase, and general modes of managing these birds.
Mi
La > a - aS 2
Pair of Trumpeters.
CHAPTER II.
MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS.
Feed their own young.—New-hatched squabs.—The pigeon-loft.—The trap.— Nesting-places.—Food and luxuries.—Water-supply.—Out-door pigeon-houses. —Pole-house.—Dovecotes.—Pigeon law.—Varro’s dovecote.—Stocking the loft. —Commencement of breeding.—Laying.—Incubation.—Merits of the cock.— Nutrition and growth of the squabs.—Pairing of pigeons.—Two hens will pair together.—Widowed pigeons.—Young birds.—Differences among the eggs and the very young.—Providential adaptations.
THE main difference between Pigeons and all other birds that are bred with us for domestic uses, is, that the young of the latter have to be supplied with suit- able food as well as the parents, and on that supply very much depends the chance of successfully rearing
ET Eleanore mens
CHAP. I1.] MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS. 35
them. No nest or permanent habitation is required for them after they are once brought into the world; merely a temporary shelter by day, and asecure and convenient lodging by night, which, however, may be shifted con- tinually from place to place with advantage rather than injury to the restless little occupants. This is the case with all the Water-fowl which we keep domesticated, as well as with the gallinaceous birds. The Duck and the Goose, as well as the Hen and the Turkey, lead out their young by day to their proper food, any deficiency of which, arising from their not being in a state of na- ture, is supplied by man; and when rest and warmth are required by the tender brood, the mother herself furnishes all that is needed under the shelter of her wings. Her own personal attentions supply from time to time whatever nest and covering is required; owr care is to exercise a general superintendence, and pro- vide them liberally with the necessary articles of diet. But with Pigeons the reverse of all this obtains. If you cater for them plentifully, well and good; they will partake of the fare, and give themselves no more trouble. If you stint them, never mind; they will go further a-field, and forage for themselves, not being Over-scrupulous as to the proprietorship of the corn they may eat, or delicate about committing a trespass. But if your allowance is quite too pinching, and the neighbours wage a determined war against all pilferers, then the Pigeons will pluck up their resolution, and emigrate to some new home, where better treatment awaits them: for a home they must have. With that tolerably adjusted, and a decent allowance of food from you, they will, by their own industry, with little further mterference, increase so rapidly, and produce so large a D2
| | |
a DREN
NEW-HATCHED SQUABS. (CHAP. II.
supply of flesh for culinary purposes, that there are cases in which the phenomenon strikes one with perfect astonishment.
Young Pigeons, when first hatched, are blind, half naked, weak, and helpless. They are fed, nearly till they are able to provide for themselves, entirely by their parents. The aliment necessary for their feeble organs during their earliest stage, is elaborated in the crop of the old birds just before hatching; they ad- minister it according to their instinctive knowledge of the fit intervals, and all we have to think of is to see that they suffer no deficiency of their accustomed ra- tions. But with such utterly dependent younglings, a fixed and safe household establishment is the thing, without which all other comforts are worthless to them.
Now, there are three modes in which a home is usually supplied to Pigeons in this country. First, by the old-fashioned square Dovecotes, built of solid mate- rials, and capable of accommodating a large number of birds, such as we see forming part of the outbuildings of manorial houses, which have enjoyed the privilege of keeping them for many years. Secondly, in small open wooden boxes, either placed against walls and gables, or elevated and isolated on poles; the birds, as before, constantly having free access, and being totally unconfined, though usually forming a smaller population than in the former case. And thirdly, in a room, or chamber, or Pigeon-loft appropriated to the purpose, which can be closed or opened at the pleasure of the owner, containing also separate cages for special pur- poses, and in short all the apparatus requisite for the systematic practice of breeding, and of regulating the
CHAP. IL] MODES OF PIGEON-KEEPING. 37
pairing and rearing of the inmates, according to de- terminate rules. This last mode, which may be made equally profitable as regards the increase of stock, is the only one which can prove satisfactory to the fancier, or to the experimental naturalist. The first system is slovenly and semi-barbarous, belonging rather to feudal times, and a primitive state of agriculture, than to the present day. The second plan may do to furnish an ornamental addition to the outbuildings of a resi- dence, or to accommodate a few children’s pets, but is otherwise unsatisfactory; and therefore it is, that of this third mode of Pigeon-keeping we shall first and principally give an account.
The apartment in one’s house or its appendages which can be most conveniently appropriated as a Pigeon- loft, is seldom open to much choice. Where a selection can be made, a sheltered and sunny aspect is most desirable ; a lofty situation is especially eligible for town-resident amateurs. An adequate amount of win- dow-light is wanted more for the pleasure of the owner than for the requirements of the birds, which appear naturally to prefer obscure retreats for their home and breeding-place. Pigeons can see to feed late after sun- set, when it is quite dusk, and when other domestic birds would give it up. The power of sight which they have to distinguish distant objects, seems extensible also to those that are but faintly illuminated. Their eye is convertible from a telescope to a night-glass.
The main external feature of the Pigeon-loft is the trap; and none can be better than a projecting box; an old tea-chest has often served the purpose efficiently, with the sides, top, and bottom either quite closed and boarded in, or made of lattice-work, the back opening
38 THE TRAP. (CHAP. T1;
into the Pigeon-loft and the front consisting of a latticed door, or rather a drawbridge, conducting the birds to the open space in which they are to exercise their powers of flight. The drawbridge (from which the trap derives its use and name) opens at the top and turns on hinges below. It is raised or let down by a string, which should pass through the loft, so that it can be drawn up, and the trap closed by the owner outside or beneath the loft, or in an adjoining chamber, without disturbing the birds, after he has ascertained, by peep- ing through a chink or aperture, that they have entered their apartment. The peculiar fittings of the trap, as most suitable to the room to which it is attached, are best left to some clever carpenter who is experienced in such work, and do not need further detail here, except to state, that at the opening by which the trap enters the loft, it is usual to have pieces of lath hanging ver- tically and freely suspended from a wire above, in such a way as to allow the entrance and prevent the egress of the birds. These the owner can raise at pleasure.
The trap here figured is copied from one now in use by Mr. Brown, of St. Margaret’s, Norwich. A differ- ence exists between this, and most others, in that only the outer door or drawbridge of this trap is outside the building ; by which means, that gentleman says, there is some convenience gained. The little swinging doors hang on a wire; they are round, and are broader to- wards the bottom, i. e., long cones, so as to be steadied by their own weight, as in the woodcut.
The accommodations provided as nesting-places, and their arrangement, must also very much depend upon circumstances. ‘The most important point is, that there
a a 5 Aiie- Sete zoa ad
CHAP: 11] THE TRAP. 39
should be at least two convenient Pigeon-holes or breed- ing-places to each pair of birds, and that there be not the least pretext for their disturbing each other or S quarrelling on this account. In other respects, it may `
Exterior. Interior.
Trap of Pigeon-loft. A, the door of the trap (outside the building). B, the inner end of the trap where the swinging doors hang. CC, the string used to pull up the outer door of the trap.
Trap of Pigeon- loft. Interior showing the loose bars called *‘ the bolt.
B, the little swinging doors on the inner end. C, the string which pulls up the outer door.
NESTING-PLACES. (CHAP, II.
be said of Pigeon-lockers, as of governments, “ which e'er is best administered, is best.” In the rare “ Trea- tise on Domestic Pigeons,” an excellent plan is thus suggested :—
“ You may erect shelves, of about twenty inches broad, for breeding places, allowing eighteen inches between shelf and shelf, that Powters may not be under the necessity of stooping for want of height, for in that case they would contract an habit of playing low, which spoils their carriage. In these shelves partitions should be fixed at about three feet distance, making a blind, by a board nailed against the front on each side of every partition, which will make two nests in the extent of every three feet; and the Pigeons will not be liable to be disturbed, as they will then sit in private. (This is an excellent plan, for a reason to be hereafter men- tioned.) Some fix a partition between each nest, which prevents the young ones from running to the hen sitting at the other end, and thereby cooling her eggs; for in breeding time, when the young ones are about a fort- night or three weeks old, the hen, if a good breeder, will lay again, and leave the care of the young ones to the cock. Others let them breed in partitions entirely open in front, for the greater convenience of cleaning out their nests. I find by experience, that nests made on the floor are much more convenient than otherwise, if the loft will admit of it, for it prevents the young ones falling out of their nests, which sometimes breaks a leg, and very often lames them, and also gives them a chance of being fed by other Pigeons, as well as their parents, which frequently happens. In every nest should be placed a straw basket, or earthen pan, that has not been glazed, which prevents the straw from slipping
a e
CHAP. 11,] FOOD AND LUXURIES. 41
about, both which are made for this purpose, and the size must be in proportion to the Pigeons you breed: for instance, a pan, fit for a Tumbler, or other small Pigeon, should be about three inches high, and eight inches over at the top, and sloping to the bottom like a wash-hand bason, and that in proportion for other larger Pigeons, remembering to put a brick close to the pan, that they may with greater safety get upon their eggs; and by the means of this pan, the eggs are not only prevented from rolling out of the nest, but your young Pigeons from being handled when you choose to look at them, which often puts them into a scouring. Some prefer the basket, as judging it the warmest, and not so liable to crack the egg when first laid; others the pan, as not so apt to harbour vermin, and being easier cleaned; and say that the foregoing inconveniences are easily remedied by putting in a sufficient quantity of clean straw, rubbed short and soft, or frail; the frail is most valued, because it lays hollow, and lasts a great while, the dung shaking off it as occasion requires.’ * Although in the country, and such situations where the Pigeons may safely be allowed almost entire liberty, it is not necessary to furnish a loft with hoppers or meat boxes (of which there are several patterns to be had); still it may be as well to feed them occasionally, i. e., four or five times a week, in their chamber, even though it may be wished to see them take their food on the ground with the other poultry as a general rule. For this purpose it will be sufficient to throw down a moderate supply of peas or barley on their floor, which we suppose to be swept and fresh gravelled with some
* Treatise on Domestic Pigeons (Lond. 1765), pp. 4-6.
42 WATER SUPPLY. (CHAP. II.
degree of regularity. The object of thus feeding them within-doors is partly to confirm their affection for the spot, and partly to give the forward squeakers that may have quitted the nest, a chance of learning to peck for themselves. Colder, old mortar, and the lime-rubbish from dilapidated buildings, when it can be had, is an excellent thing to strew their floor with, in addition to the gravel; if it is not obtainable, a few lumps of clay or brick-earth, and a spadeful of dry loamy soil may be put down here and there. Two other luxuries should never be wanting, salt and water; day by day it should be looked to that there is a sufficiency of these. They will be more effectual than almost anything in prevent- ing the birds from straying, and, if you wish it, in tempt- ing your neighbours’ birds to repeat their chance in- trusions. The salt may be of any coarsely-granulated kind, set down in an earthen pan; it can be eaten more readily than rock-salt, and is therefore more agreeable. Fanciers who are more superstitious than cleanly, can prepare the Salt-Cat according to the most potent and the nastiest recipe *, but we have found that the mineral in its natural state answers every purpose of keeping the birds healthily contented with their lot, and so have avoided handling ingredients amongst which assafcetida is not the most disagreeable.
As to the water supply, every earthen-ware and glass shop affords plenty of choice; the open pan gives the
* “So named, I suppose, from a certain fabulous oral tradition of baking a cat, in the time of her salaciousness, with cummin seed, and some other ingredients, as a decoy for your neighbours’ pigeons.” —Treatise, p. 31.
“Some make use of a goat’s head boiled in urine, with a mixture of salt, cummin, and hemp.”——The New and Complete Pigeon- Fancier, by Daniel Girton, Esq., p. 59.
oo
CHAP. 11] WATER SUPPLY. 43
birds an opportunity of bathing, in which they délight ; but they will soon splash out all the water from that, and therefore a reservoir with a narrow opening is more Sure to satisfy the wants of the community. It is best to provide one of each. Of the latter kind none can be preferable to that described in the “ Treatise,” af- fording, as it does, opportunity for a lecture on Hydro- Statics.
“ The water-bottle should be a large glass bottle with a long neck, holding four or five gallons (the carboys, in which various fluids are received by dispensing che- mists, are very suitable for the purpose), and its belly made in the form of an egg, to keep them from dung- ing on it; but the shape is not material, as a piece of paste-board, hung by a string at three or four inches above the bottle, will always prevent that, by hindering them from settling thereon. This bottle should be placed upon a stand, or three-footed stool, made hollow at top to receive the belly, and let the mouth into a small pan; the water by this means will gradually de- scend out of the mouth of the bottle as the Pigeons drink it, and be sweet and clean, and always stop when the surface of the water meets with the mouth of the bottle.
“ The reason of which is evident ; for the belly of the bottle being entirely close at top, keeps off all the ex- ternal pressure of the atmosphere, which pressing hard Upon the surface of the water in the pan, which is con- tiguous to that in the bottle, is too potent for the small quantity of air which is conveyed into the belly of the bottle with the water, and which consequently, as being the lighter matter, rises to the top of the bottle, as it Stands in its proper situation; but the water being
44 OUT-DOOR PIGEON-HOUSES. [CHAP. II.
sucked away by the Pigeons, that it no longer toucheth the mouth of the bottle, the confined air exerts its power, and causeth the water to descend ’till they become conti- guous as before.” *
Of the small Pigeon-houses that are affixed to walls, or elevated on poles, there is a considerable variety. Among the former, the best are those which are con- trived on the principle of having two nesting-places accessible to each pair of birds. Sometimes the whim of the architect makes them to represent baby-houses, or mansions adorned with battlements and turrets, and one is amused with the incongruity of seeing a Pigeon peep out at a Gothic window. But strict criticism is not applicable to castles in the air. The great objec- tion to all such Pigeon-houses is, that they are subject to every variation of temperature, are ill sheltered from pelting rains and stormy winds, and allow but little control to be exercised over the birds themselves. The best pole-house with which we are acquainted is that of which a plan and elevation is given in the accom- panying cuts. A pair of birds take possession of the suite of apartments whose landing place is marked a. They will probably pass through the vestibule B when they first bring in straws for a nest, and deposit them in one of the chambers, as c: when the young are a fortnight or three weeks old, the hen will probably leave them mostly to the care of the cock, and make a fresh nest and lay in the opposite apartment D. As soon as the first pair of young are flown, o will be vacant for the hatching of a third brood, and so by shifting alternately from parlour to study, and never
* Treatise, pp. 8-10.
a E ES a E a a N E —
CHAP. II.] POLE-HOUSE. 45
being idle, a good pair of parent birds will produce quite a little flock by the end of the summer.
10x 4 | Bx 2 M1
¥6
ae c
A 2ft 104
But the old manorial Dovecote belonging to bygone days is a substantial cubical building, with a pyrami- | dal tiled roof, surmounted by an unglazed lantern by | which the Pigeons enter. It frequently forms the upper half of a square turret, and then can only be entered
46 MANORIAL DOVECOTES. [CHAP. IT.
by a ladder without, the lower half being used as a cow-house, cart-shed, or root-house. It is usually so- lidly built of either brick or stone, and the interior fittings are of brick also. Nesting-places are thus made to occupy the four entire walls, except where the open- ing for the door prevents them. The place gets cleaned out twice or thrice in the year, and is very snug; but as the birds which die are not removed when they ought to be, it is sometimes very offensive, to the human sense at least. In many places in the west of England brick nesting-boxes for common Dove-house Pigeons are built outside the walls, according to the exact pattern of those in the ancient Dovecotes, but the plan has none of the security, warmth, and quiet of the old system, and retains all its disadvantages. On Colonel Petre’s estate at Westwick in Norfolk, an arch is thrown across the road, and the pediment and upper portions of each pier are tenanted by Pigeons. The idea was probably sug- gested by Capability Browne, who assisted in laying out the grounds. The effect is really very good, and the birds thrive and evidently enjoy the vicinity of the lake as a convenient watering and bathing place. But those gentlemen who reside in a rocky district might contrive the most picturesque of all Dovecotes, by hollowing out a space in the face of a cliff, and fashioning the en- trance as nearly like a natural cavern as possible. A few pairs of Rock Doves once settled here in lockers hewn in the rock itself, would indeed feel themselves at home; and if an elevated spot were selected, their out-door proceedings would be observable from the man- sion and pleasure-grounds generally, and could not fail to form an agreeable point of view.
The above-mentioned cubical, brick-built receptacles
a
CHAP. IL] DOVECOTES OF YORE. 47
are the Dovecotes to which so many privileges once attached, though they are now nearly obsolete. It is certain that Dovehouse Pigeons were kept for use and profit at an early period of English History. In Degge’s “ Parson’s Counsellor,” Ellis’s edition, p. 314, we find that “ there was a canon made by Robert Win- chelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his clergy, in the year 1305, whereby it was declared, that ‘all and every parishioner shall pay honestly and without diminution to their churches the below mentioned tithes; that is to Say, . . . of Pigeons . . . d&e. &c., on pain of excommunication,’ ” although the claims of the clergy on these birds do not seem to have universally obtained in England. For in Blomefield’s elaborate history of Nor- folk we find that, “in the time of King James I. there was a long suit about the customs of the Rectory of Dice or Diss, and at length it was ended, and an ex- €mplification under seal passed” of what the rector was to receive in kind, and what in lieu thereof. Goslings, Eggs, Bees, and Milk, are mentioned, but not a word about young Pigeons, a delicacy which would have been hardly omitted, had they been then and there subject to payment of tithes. Neither are they enumerated among the customary payments from copyhold tenants, which in those days seem to have been very strictly exacted, Among all the oppressive claims that were then insisted upon, none appears, that we can find, on the poor Pigeons or their Dovecote. See Blomefield’s account of the Manor of Brisingham. The “ Parson’s Counsellor,” at p. 343, indicates somewhat of a middle course: “ But of young Pigeons in Dovecotes or in Pigeon-holes, about a man’s house, tithes shall be paid if they be sold ; but if they be spent in the family no tithe shall be paid for them.”
+ Ie ate Emm Nn ane
y7
SPANISH DOVECOTES. [CHAP. II.
But Mr. Borrow, who is always amusing, though he is often severe upon the ignorance of the parish priests of the Peninsula, gives an entertaining instance of clerical privileges in connection with Pigeon-houses. A priest, who afterwards talks of Holy Pablo’s (Paul’s) first letter to Pope Sixtus, (Qu.? the Epistle to the Romans,) is made to say, “‘I hope you will look in upon me, Don Jorge, and I will show you my little library of the Fathers, and likewise my Dovecote, where I rear nu- merous broods of Pigeons, which are also a source of much solace and at the same time of profit.’
“ < I suppose by your Dovecote,’ said I, ‘ you mean your parish, and by rearing broods of Pigeons, you al- lude to the care you take of the souls of your people, instilling therein the fear of God and obedience to his revealed law, which occupation must of course afford you much solace and spiritual profit.’
“<I was not speaking metaphorically, Don Jorge,’ replied my companion ; ‘and by rearing Doves, I mean neither more nor less than that I supply the market of Cordova with Pigeons, and occasionally that of Seville ; for my birds are .very celebrated, and plumper or fatter flesh than theirs, I believe, cannot be found in the whole kingdom. Should you come to my village, Don Jorge, you will doubtless taste them at the venta where you will put up, for I suffer no Dovecotes but my own within my district. With respect to the souls of my parishioners, E trust I do my duty—I trust I do, as far as in my power hes.’ ’*
Private property in Pigeons is more strictly protected, and any infringement of it more severely punishable by English law, than is generally imagined. An Act
* The Bible in Spain, vol. i. p. 355.
ee
4% pag CHAP. 1f.] PIGEON LAW. 49
passed in the second year of James I. enacts, “ That all and every person and persons, which from and after the first day of August next (1604) following, shall Shoot at, kill, or destroy with any gun, cross-bow, stone- bow, or long-bow, any Pheasant, Partridge, House-dove or Pigeon, Hearn, Mallard, Duck, Teal, Widgeon, Grouse, Heathcock, Moregame, or any such Fowl, or any Hare, . . . . shall be by the said justices of peace, for every such offence, committed to the common gaol of the said county, city, or town corporate, where the offence shall be committed, or the parties appre- hended, there to remain for three months without bail or mainprise, unless that the said offender do or shall forthwith upon the said conviction, pay or cause to be paid, to the churchwardens of the said parish where the Said offence shall be committed, or the parties appre- hended, to the use of the poor of the said parish, the Sum of twenty shillings for every Pheasant, Partridge, House-dove or Pigeon, Hearn, Mallard, Duck, Teal, Widgeon, Grouse, Heathcock, Moregame or any such Fowl, and for every egg of Pheasant, Partridge, or Swans, and for every Hare, which any and every such person and persons so offending and convicted as afore- said, shall take, kill, or willingly destroy, contrary to the true purport and true meaning of this statute,” &e.— This law was enacted to reach “ the vulgar sort, and men — of small worth, making a trade and a living of the spoil- ing and destroying of the said games, who are not of Sufficiency to pay the said penalties in the said statutes mentioned, nor to answer the costs and charges of any that should inform and prosecute against them.”
Nor has time mitigated the penalty for such offences, The 7th and 8th George IV., chap. 29, sec. 33, which
E
50 PIGEON LAW. (CHAR. it.
repealed former Acts, tells us, “ And be it enacted, That if any person shall unlawfully and wilfully kill, wound, or take any House-dove or Pigeon, under such circumstances as shall not amount to larceny at com- mon law; every such offender, being convicted thereof before a justice of the peace, shall forfeit and pay over and above the value of the bird, any sum not exceeding two pounds.” By the 67th sect. of the same Act, the magistrates may, in case of default in payment of value and penalty, commit for any term not exceeding two months.
A lord of a manor may build a Dove-cote upon his land, parcel of his manor; but a servant of the manor cannot do it without licence.
It hath been adjudged that erecting a Dove-house is not a common nuisance, nor presentable in the leet.
If Pigeons come upon my land and I kill them, the owner hath no remedy against me; though I may be liable to the statutes which make it penal to destroy them.
Doves in a Dove-house, young and old, shall go to the heir, and not to the executor.
The reader will now have had enough law, unless he be one of those foolish persons who are amateurs of it, and cannot live without it. This part of the subject shall be concluded with Varro’s account of his Dove- cote, just before the commencement of the Christian era.
“The Isgioregedv, or Pigeon-house, is made like a large pent-house (testudo), covered with an arched roof, having one narrow entrance, with Carthaginian shutters, or wider ones, latticed on each side, that the whole place may be light, and that no serpent, or other
CHAP. IL] VARRO’S DOVECOTE. 51
noxious creature, be able to enter. Within, the walls and roof are plastered over with the thinnest possible coat of mortar, and without also, around the shutters, lest any mouse or lizard should be able to creep up to the lockers; for no creature is more timid than a Pigeon. Round lockers for each pair are placed close in ranks. -There may be as many rows as possible from the ground up to the roof. Each locker should have a separate opening for entrance and exit: within three palms (of capacity) each way. Under each row of lockers, shelves, two palms broad, to be used as a vestibule, and for them to walk out upon. A stream of water should run in, where they may drink and bathe, for these birds are very cleanly. Therefore the keeper ought to brush out the Pigeon-house every month; for what defiles that place is most suitable for agriculture, so that many authors have described this manure as excellent. If a Pigeon ails anything, it should be Cured ; if one dies, it should be removed ; if any squabs are fit for sale, they can be brought out. Also, if any are about to lay, they should be removed to a separate place parted off by a net, whence the breeding birds can fly abroad, which they do on two accounts: first, that if they lose their appetite, or grow feeble from Confinement, they may be refreshed by the open air when they go into the fields; and, secondly, because of the tie that binds them to their home ; for they will return on account of the young which they have left, unless they happen to be intercepted and destroyed by a Crow or a Hawk.
“Their food ig placed around the wall in troughs, Which are supplied from without by means of tubes. They delight in millet, wheat, barley, peas, haricot-
ER
52 STOCKING THE LOFT. [CHAP. II.
beans, vetches. Those who keep these wild and rustic Pigeons in towers, and in the tops of their farm- houses, should, as far as possible, introduce them to their Dovery at a good age; they should be procured neither too young nor too old, as many males as females. Nothing is more prolific than Pigeons, so that in forty days they conceive, and lay, and incubate, and rear. And they do this nearly the whole year: they only make an interval from winter to the vernal equinox. Two young ones are hatched, which, as soon as they have attained their growth and strength, begin to lay in company with their parents.” *
The reader, if he will be advised, will select a warm well-fitted loft, as the best place to keep Pigeons in. Having prepared that, the next step is not merely to furnish it with a sufficient population, but to settle the new colony in a state of contentment with their loca- tion. With all other poultry, it is enough to get them home, feed them, and leave them to inspect their new master’s premises at their uncontrolled leisure. Not so with Pigeons. Bring a score fine birds to your com- fortable loft; give them all the peas, and water, and salt they can wish for; let them out at the end of a day or two; and the chances are, that in a few hours they will all have disappeared, never to be caught sight of, by you, again. You then go to the dealer with a doubting face, and complain that all the birds you bought of him the other day have flown back again. He replies, “ Sir, I am very sorry for that; very sorry indeed! Such good specimens ; and, altogether, at a long price !”
‘Well, but,” you say, “of course you will let me
* De Re Rustica, iii. 7.
a ae NE e oa” Ilhan ti
CHAP, 11] SETTLING THE BIRDS. 53
have them back again; the bill is paid, and I feel assured that you are a respectable tradesman.”
“Thank you, sir,” he rejoins with a bow; “and you may believe that it would give me the greatest pleasure to assist you in recovering them; but it is not to this place that they have returned. I bought them of parties who are strangers to me, and I really do not know where to apply to hunt them up for you.”
At this you look very blank, and a little sceptical ; which calls forth the remark, “ If you doubt my word, sir, you are welcome to look round and see. John! take the gentleman backwards, and show him all the Pigeons we have on the premises.”
You have no more to say, and depart. A fortnight afterwards, passing the shop of some other dealer, you observe Pigeons offered for sale, so exceedingly like those you had a little while ago, that you are struck with admiration at the certainty and perfection at which the art of breeding has been brought of late years.
But Pigeons must be made to form an attachment to their home, before they can be safely trusted with liberty. One great inducement to them to stay where they may happen to be brought to, is to find them- Selves in the midst of an old-established society ; for though monogamous, they are eminently social. But the founder of a new settlement of Doves is not pos- sessed of this means of temptation wherewith to allure Strangers. A common plan is to clip the feathers of one wing, with newly-purchased birds, in the expecta- tion that the interval between that time and their next moult will be sufficient to reconcile them to a strange home, especially if they can be induced to breed mean- while. But the operation does not always answer in
STOCKING THE LOFT. [CHAP. IT.
the end. Some birds, as soon as they regain their accustomed powers of flight, start off, taking away per- haps a companion or two with them, in search of their old haunts. And besides this, a clipped-winged Pigeon is as sad a sight as a blind greyhound or a lame race- horse. The poor thing cannot get up and down to its locker, without hopping like a Sparrow when it should glide like a Hawk. It tumbles in dirt while it should be mounting on air.
If the dealer could warrant that his adult birds of choice breeds had never been flown, but had been kept incarcerated from the moment of their sprawling out of the divided egg-shell—a warrant which he can but rarely give with satisfaction to his own mind—then the purchaser might safely keep them at home just for a few days, and afterwards let them out with but little fear of their leaving him. But it is a rare case to be able to place any such dependence on new-bought Pigeons. Whether they go back to their old home, or whether they simply get strayed and lost, the disap- pointment is the same to him who wishes to retain them. The only safe way to stock an unpeopled loft, in which the birds are intended to be allowed any de- gree of liberty in the open air, is to procure, by order- ing them beforehand, several pairs of the young birds | of the sorts required, as soon as they are able to peck | for themselves, i.e., at about five weeks old. Such | colonists as these will take to their settlement without giving much trouble. The only fear of losing them is from their being decoyed away by older birds in the neighbourhood before they have fairly mated, and have become fully conscious that an independent home of their own is desirable.
a
CHAP. IL] COMMENCEMENT OF BREEDING. 55
When these young Pigeons are about six months old, | or before, they begin to go together in pairs, except while associated with the entire flock at feeding times ; and when they are resting on the roofs, or basking in the sun, they retire apart to short distances for the pur- pose of courtship, and pay each other little kind atten- tions, such as nestling close, and mutually tickling the heads one of another. At last comes what is called “ billing,” which is, in fact, a kiss, a hearty and intense kiss. As soon as this takes place, the marriage is com- plete, and is forthwith consummated. The pair are now united, companions, not necessarily for life, though usually so, but rather durante bene placito, so long as they continue to be satisfied with each other. If they are Tumblers, they mount aloft, and try which can tumble best; if they are Powters, they emulate one the other’s puffings, tail-sweepings, circlets in the air, and wing clappings; while the Fantails and the Runts, and all those kinds which the French call Pigeons mondains, walk the ground with conscious importance and grace. But this is their honeymoon—the time for the frolics of giddy young people. The male is the first to be- come serious. He foresees that “the Campbells are coming ” better than his bride, and therefore takes pos- session of some locker or box that seems an eligible tenement. If it is quite empty and bare, he carries to it a few straws or slight sticks ; but if the apartment has been already furnished for him, he does not at present take much further trouble in that line. Here he settles himself, and begins complaining. “Oh, oh!” he moans, “do come and help me; do come and comfort me!” His appeal is sometimes answered by the lady affording him her presence, sometimes not; in which
LAYING.—INCUBATION. (CHAP. II.
case he does not pine in solitude very long, but goes and searches out his careless helpmate, and with close pursuit, and a few sharp pecks, if necessary, insists upon her attending to her business at home. Like the good husband described in Fuller’s “ Holy State,” « his love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her, and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her. Wherefore he avoideth all fondnesse, (a sick love, to be praised in none, and pardoned onely in the newly married, ) whereby more have wilfully betrayed their command, and ever lost it by their wives’ rebellion. Methinks the he-viper is right enough served, which (as Pliny reports) puts his head into the she-viper’s mouth, and she bites it off. And what wonder is it if women take the rule to themselves, which their uxorious husbands first sur- render unto them?”* Well, the cock Pigeon is no he-viper, and so the hen obeys, occasionally, however, giving some trouble; but at last she feels that she must discontinue general visiting and long excursions ; she enters the modest establishment that has been pre- pared for her performance of her maternal duties. A day or two after she has signified her acceptance of the new home, an egg may be expected to be found there. Over this she (mostly) stands sentinel, till, after an intervening day, a second egg is laid, and incubation really commences; not hotly and energetically at first, as with Hens, Turkeys, and many other birds, but gently and with increasing assiduity.
And now the merits of her mate grow apparent. He does not leave his lady to bear a solitary burden of ma- trimonial care, while he has indulged in the pleasures
* Book I. chap. iii.
CHAP. IL] MERITS OF THE COCK. dT
only of their union. He takes a share, though a minor one, of the task of incubating; and he more than per- forms his half-share of the labour of rearing the young. At about noon, oftentimes earlier, the hens leave their nests for air and exercise as well as food, and the cocks take their place upon the eggs. If you enter a Pigeon- loft at about two o’clock in the afternoon, you will find all the cock birds sitting—a family arrangement that affords an easy method of discovering which birds are paired with which. The ladies are to be seen taking their respective turns in the same locations early in the morning, in the evening, and all the night. The ome. )
a cock Pigeon grows, the more fatherly does he become. So great is his fondness for having a rising family, that’ an experienced unmated cock bird, if he can but in- duce some flighty young hen to lay him a couple of eggs as a great favour, will almost entirely take the charge of hatching and rearing them by himself. We are possessed of an old Blue Antwerp Carrier (with probably a cross of the Runt), who, by following this line was, with but little assistance from any female, an excellent provider of pie materials, till he succeeded in educating a hen Barb to be a steady wife and mother. It quite put us in mind of those discreet old gentlemen who send their young brides to school before they marry them. The pair are still equally prolific. In- deed, Pigeons that have become attached to their home, and have made choice of a partner, no matter of what sort, cross-bred or otherwise, should never be destroyed. They will have rendered, if fairly fed, such substantial assistance to the pastry-cook in the course of their adult period (the duration of which is not well defined), as to
GROWTH OF THE SQUABS. [CHAP. II.
merit an immunity and free commons till the time of their natural decease.
At the end of eighteen days from the laying of the second egg (but the time cannot be invariably fixed | within several hours) a young one will appear. Subse- "quently, at a short but uncertain interval, sometimes comes another chick, sometimes remains an addle egg. Of all young things, babies included, a new-hatched Pigeon ranks among the most helpless, as the annexed cutindicates with tolerable accuracy. Most little birds,
Pigeon-Chick, a day old.
if blind, if weak, can at least open their mouths to be fed; but these actually have their nutriment pumped into them. They have just instinctive sense enough to feel for the bills of their parents; they will make the same half-conscious movement to find the tip of your finger, if you take them in your hand. And this act of pumping from the stomachs of the parents is so efficiently performed, as to be, without offence, incre-
eee are nao eileen ieee emenereneatamnemmeetmereaemeemnmnaniitibiie.
CHAP. I1] GROWTH OF THEIR FEATHERS. 59
dible by those who have not watched the result. A little Pigeon grows enormously the first twelve hours ; after the third day, still more rapidly; and for a time longer at a proportionate rate. If it do not, something is wrong, and it is not likely to be reared at all. The squab that remains stationary is sure to die. Some- times, of two squabs, one will go on growing like a mushroom or a puff-ball, and the other will keep as it was, till the thrifty one weighs six or eight times as much as its brother or sister on which the spell of ill-luck has been laid.
The young are at first sparsely covered with long filaments of down; the root of each filament indicates the point from which each stub or future feather-case is to start. The down, for a while, still hangs on the tips of some of the feathers during their growth, and finally, we believe, does not drop off from them, but is absorbed into the shaft of the growing feather. No domestic birds afford such good opportunities of ob- serving the growth of feathers as Pigeons. Mr. Yar- rell gives some minute details respecting the growth of that peculiar clothing with which this Class of Birds are outwardly protected, in the “ Transactions of the London Zoological Society,” vol. i. p. 13, which might be largely quoted did space permit; but still, as it is, room must be found for a few sentences. :
“ The bulb or pulp, which is the foundation of each feather, has its origin in a gland or follicle of the skin; and as the pulp lengthens, this gland or follicle is absorbed. The pulp still lengthening becomes in- vested on its outer surface with several concentric layers of condensed cellular membrane, from which the shaft, the filaments of both lateral webs, the colouring matter,
PAIRING OF PIGEONS. (CHAP. II.
and the horny quill are severally produced; but ana- tomists appear to differ a little in opinion as to the exact manner in which the growth of the various parts takes place. The pulp, which nearly fills the barrel of the quill while the feather is forming, is connected with the body of the bird by an aperture at that end of the quill which is fixed in the skin, through which aperture or umbilicus a portion of the pulp is extended. The whole of the pulp, within as well as without the quill, is the only part of the feather which appears to be vas- cular, and the large feathers of the wing may be in- jected, while growing, from the humeral artery; but the feathers once perfected, the injection can no longer be sent even into the pulp. The membranes of which it was composed, the former nidus of vessels now obli- terated, dry up, contract, and ultimately separating transversely into funnel-shaped portions (which remain in the barrel of each quill), are well known by the fami- liar term of pith.”
The pairing of Pigeons is a practice so strictly ad- hered to by them, that if the number of male birds in a Dovecote is less than that of females, the supernumerary hens will pair with each other, and set up an establish- ment for themselves; if the males are in excess they will make an excursive tour in search of a mate, and either remain with her at her residence, or, which is just as frequently the case, bring the lady with them to their own home. The unmated hens that thus enter into partnership will go through all the ceremonies of pairing, make a nest, lay two eggs each, sit alternately and carefully, and, if they are members of a large flock, very often rear young. I had a couple of hen Pigeons that generally produced one or two young ones in this
CHAP. IL] WIDOWED PIGEONS. 61
way, thus proving that the conjugal fidelity of the male birds at least has been somewhat exaggerated ; for they were seen in the fact of yielding to the blandishments of the independent spinsters. But the two eggs of the Pigeon produce one male and one female chick in so nearly an invariable manner, that any disproportion in the sexes, by which these aberrations from ordinary K, rules are caused, arises rather from disease or acci- dent, than from any chance result of the hatchings. Ælian curiously mixes up true facts with superstitious notions on this subject. “ They say that Doves incu- bate alternately ; when the young appear the male spits on them, to avert by this means, it is said, the evil eye, and that they may not excite envy. The female brings forth two eggs, the first of which always pro- duces a male, the second a female.”* This point I have not verified, but it is very likely. Ælian, like others who do not strictly adhere to truth, is often doubted when his statements are really correct. He repeats, from Aristotle, the account of the solitary hens coupling together, which we ourselves know to be in accordance with their present habits.
When a hen Pigeon has the misfortune to lose her mate, by gunning or trapping, she is certainly uncom- fortable for a while, but not inconsolable. She does not go pining on, like poor Lady Russell, exclaiming with her, “ I cannot be comforted, because I have not the dear companion and sharer of all my joys and sorrows. I want him to talk with, to walk with, to eat and sleep with; all these things are irksome to me now ; the day unwelcome, and the night so too!” She does not in any
i Yp AN TIN i) a ii
i
* Var. Hist. i. 15.
62 CARE OF THE YOUNG BIRDS. (CHAP. II.
way of this kind adopt the character which sentimenta- lists have assigned to her. Nor, to her credit, does she follow the example of those jaunty widows, who, having secured their jointure on the family estate, and their hus- bands im the family vault, then begin to enjoy life. It will not do for her to make insincere advances to any unmated male in the neighbourhood, be he bachelor or widower. She will soon find it as dangerous a game as playing at marriages is in Scotland, and will be driven to nest with a peck and a buffet, hard enough to show plainly that cock Pigeons, though they have no gall-bladder*, are yet a little choleric, and are not to be trifled with in matters of the heart. Flirta- tions ending in nothing, and femmes seuls intending to keep so, are things intolerable in a columbine commu- nity. But she knows better, and soon follows the more respectable example of the Widow of Ephesus—a lady whom we all approve in our hearts, while we think it decent to blame and ridicule her openly.
If the Pigeons are to be kept entirely confined in their loft, the nests should be supplied with a little short straw in each; but if they are to be flown, and twigs and straws are at hand, it is better to leave them to make the nests themselves. This indulgence will allow them to exhibit a very curious habit. Just at the time of hatching, the cock bird brings new materials to
* Fuller (about 1650) alludes to this peculiarity in the anatomy of the Pigeon, and assumes that it ought to be known to all well- educated medical men. “ Unworthy pretenders to Physick are rather Souls than stains to the Profession. And commonly the most ignorant are the most confident in their undertakings, and will not stick to tell you what disease the gall of a Dove is good to cure.”—The Holy State, Book I., chap. ii.
CHAP. I1.] DIFFERENCES AMONG THE EGGS AND YOUNG. 63
the nest, to increase the accommodation for his two little new-comers; so that if a pair are known to be sit- ting, and the cock is observed to fly up to the loft with sticks and straws in his bill, it is a sure sign that hatching is about to take place. The object is pro- bably to keep the young squabs from contact with their own accumulated dung; otherwise it is very apt to clog their feet, and hang in hardened pellets to each claw. The same thing often happens to adult birds that are closely caged. The pellets should be re- moved by splitting them with a pen-knife; but it is best done by two operators; one, to hold the bird. Calling on a worthy old Pigeon-fancier, now no more, on looking round. I could not help asking, “ Why, where’s your Bronze-wing? You have not parted with that ?”—*« Ah, Sir,” he replied, ‘such a misfortune this morning! I took it out of the cage to clean its feet; it struggled, and I held it tight against my chest: too tight—for when I had done, the bird was dead! I would not have taken five guineas for it. It was sent me all the way from Sydney !”
The eggs of the different breeds of Domestic Pigeons are much less dissimilar than those of Fowls ; they vary a little in size, but their shape and proportions are the Same. I have never seen a buff Pigeon’s egg, of the hue of those of the Malay or of the Cochin China Fowl, and not even a cream-coloured one. All the wild Pigeons’ eggs, too, that I have had an opportunity of inspecting, as well as those of the Collared Turtle, look as if they were every one of them cast after the same model. It would be most difficult, on being shown an gg of any of the Columbide, to pronounce by which Species it had been laid.
PROVIDENTIAL ADAPTATIONS. (CHAP. II.
In the new-hatched young, likewise, of Pigeons, for the first few days but slight differences between the different breeds are to be observed,—so contrary to what we see in the gallinaceous birds, and in those water birds which are hatched in a state capable of loco- motion, and of feeding themselves! These may at once be determined by an experienced eye; but it would be difficult for a fancier to point out characteristics of a little Pigeon just escaped from the shell. In the Rock Dove, there is a dark mark at the tip of the bill ; in the Nuns the feet are dark instead of fleshy yellow; but they mostly run all after the same pattern. Pigeons are among those creatures that come into the world na very rudimentary state; a wise ordinance, if we think for a moment. The very helplessness of the chicks is a convenience to parents that are obliged to be so much absent from home, and have to provide sustenance for their offspring often by long flights.
But in the young of almost all creatures we may see, with a glance, the Providential wisdom of the Almighty in Creation, exemplified by the different degrees of de- velopment of different organs in various creatures, in the earliest stages of their existence, accordingly as those organs are most demanded by their peculiar necessities. The Foal, which, in a state of nature, has to follow its mother over boundless grassy plains, has its legs extra- ordinarily developed in proportion to the rest of its body. For some months her milk supplies its principal nutri- ment; all it has to do, is to keep pace with her wander- ings. The same feature is equally striking in Lambs and Kids. We have elsewhere noticed an analogous provision in the rapid growth towards usefulness in the wings of Pea-chicks and little Guinea-fowl. The small
CHAP. IL] IN THE YOUNG OF VARIOUS CREATURES. 65
birds which are hatched in warm nests, and there fed and brooded by their parents, want neither thick cloth- ing nor locomotive power; accordingly, they are for a time weak and half-naked, but furnished with a wide mouth and gullet, and with a powerful digestion, to re- ceive and make the most of every morsel which is brought ` to them by their heaven-instructed nurses. Contrast these feeble, gaping nestlings, with a brood of little Geese of any species, which from the first have to crop for themselves a day-long meal of grass, to the tenderest of which, often growing in low damp spots, they are led by their parents a few hours after escaping from the Shell. These are covered, as by defensive armour, with a thick, stiff, coating of down, or rather fur, which hardly any wet will touch; and their bill, instead of being soft and gaping, is almost as efficient a pair of shears as that of Geese a twelvemonth old. That very extraor- dinary Australian bird the Leipoa ocellata, for a know- ledge of whose strange habits we are indebted to Sir George Grey and Mr. Gould, does not sit upon its eggs, but makes a vast heap of sand, dried grass, &c., of such dimensions as to be mistaken by the first dis- ©overers for a tumulus, or grave-heap of the Natives. The temperature of this fermenting mass, though not so warm as would be thought necessary for the purpose of hatching eggs, is still sufficient for the object required. “There are two great peculiarities about these eggs, besides their immense size in proportion to that of the bird, the average weight of the egg being eight ounces, while the Leipoa appears to have as large a body as the female Turkey, but is shorter on the legs: the first peculiarity is, that both ends are of nearly the same size; which form is peculiarly adapted to the position F
66 PROVIDENTIAL ADAPTATIONS (CHAP. Il.
in which they are always placed, i. e., vertically, with the smaller end downwards; the egg being compressed in every part as nearly as possible towards the axis, in which the centre of gravity lies, there is the least pos- sible tendency to its equilibrium being destroyed when it is placed in vertical position. A second peculiarity is the extreme thinness of the shell, and its consequent fra- gility. This is so great, that, unless the egg is handled with the greatest care, it is sure to be broken, and every effort which has been made to hatch these eggs under domestic fowls has failed, the egg having in every instance been broken by the bird under which it was placed.” *
What need of a firm shell for an egg which has not to beara touch, from the moment of laying to that of hatching, but which is intended to remain an undis- turbed deposit in a hot-bed, till the marvellous work of transmutation into a living creature shall have been completed ? The substance of the shell was not wanted, and is not supplied ;—the form, by which it rests se- curely in its place, has been provided for. And the Chicks, which have to effect their own deliverance from this cumbrous nursing cradle, are not like the flabby nestlings that are hatched on the branching twig, or in the snug thicket: “ the young emerge fully feathered, and capable of sustaining life by their own unaided efforts, The young one scratches its way out alone; the mother does not assist it. They usually come out one at a time; occasionally a pair appear together. The. mother, who is feeding in the scrub in the vicinity, hears its call and runs to it. She then takes care of
* Gould’s Introduction to the Birds of Australia, p. 85.
CHAP. 11.) IN’ THE YOUNG OF VARIOUS CREATURES. 67
the young one as a European Hen does of its chick.”* The Kangaroo, an animal which uses an almost con- vulsive mode of progression on its two hind legs, and Would undoubtedly be seriously hindered and endan- gered by arriving at a gravid state, as heavy as that which is attained by quadrupeds that go on all-fours, has been relieved by the wisdom of its Creator from the impeding burden and: incumbrance at a very early Stage, and ordained to bring forth its young small and immature. But a warm pouch has been prepared for their reception, and as to themselves and their or- Sans, they want but one—a mouth wherewith to imbibe milk: they seem to be all mouth; they secure themselves So firmly to the nipple, that they are not readily de- tached from it; in other respects they are, for some time, little more than shapeless lumps of living flesh. All that is wanted for their safety and their sustenance, is granted them abundantly. And little Pigeons, to which we have at last arrived, in our survey, are, like the young Kangaroos, provided with a disproportionately large, soft, absorbent mouth or bill—the very thing they want, in order to live by suction on the milky ali- ment secreted by the parent birds. The bill of a young Pigeon is a ridiculously prominent feature, a laughable “aricature of what we might suppose a bill ought to be. In new-hatched squeakers it measures a considerable part of the creature’s whole length; a frightfully ugly appendage in the eyes of whoever forgets to observe the ~ exact fitness with which it is adapted to the end in view, namely, to be the instrument of rearing a feeble nest- ling to attain the independent condition of a robust adult,
* Gould’s Introduction to the Birds of Australia, p. 85,
F 2
"#2
INFERENCE. [CHAP. II.
Now let us suppose any of these peculiarities of im- perfect organization to be changed or reversed,—that the mouth of the Foal was twice as convenient as it is for draining the udder of its dam, but that its legs were only half as capable of keeping company with her pro- gress over the prairies,—that the gallinaceous birds, which make their nest on the hard earth, and are rough in their motions, and scratch, never gently, with their feet,—that they had laid eggs as unwieldy and fragile as those which the Megapodide or Brush Turkeys drop and then bury in a soft stratum of sand and grass,— that the preponderance of growth in the young Pigeon, instead of being directed to its bill, had been bestowed upon strengthening its legs, or quickly pluming its wings,—suppose any such alterations as these, and what fearful disasters would ensue! So that even what we call imperfect organization is made to subserve a wise purpose; out of weakness and deficiency are brought forth strength to the individual, security and perma- nence to the race; just as in the moral world, what at the time are often thought afflictions hard to bear, prove in the end to have been the steps leading to future welfare.
The study, too, of these incomplete commencements of existence in all animated beings, and of the way in which that very incompleteness is made to answer a purpose, must, one would say, prove that “ the progres- sion of forms,” ‘ the evolution of species,’ and their advancement by some innate energy of their own, or some “law” of nature, from fishes to reptiles, from reptiles to birds and quadrupeds, from quadrupeds to quadrumans or monkeys, and from monkeys to human beings with a reasoning soul, is an error as complete as
CHAP, 11] INFERENCE. 69
is the “ creation of species by Man” of the continental naturalists. When Man sets to work to create a spe-
cies of sentient animal, he manages it so well, that his
results are of a very short-lived nature. And if Man
bungles and mismanages his work so badly, the conve-
nient Goddess Chance, is not likely to succeed much
better.
Pigeons fighting.
CHAPTER III.
CLASSIFICATION OF PIGEONS.
Proposed classes.—Ambiguous nomenclature.—The question of origin.—Ground of the received opinion little investigated by naturalists —Estimate of Tem- minck’s authority.—Difficulties and doubts suggested by the accounts of former ornithologists —The reader to sum up the evidence.—Scheme of arrangement.
As it is our object to consider these birds mainly in reference to their actual or possible domesticability, it will be found most convenient to arrange them into three classes; the first consisting of those which are found in the domestic state only, and never met with wild. Itisa mistake to suppose that any of the Fancy Pigeons ever become even feral. A few half-breeds between them and either the Blue Rock, or the Dove-
CHAP. III.] PROPOSED CLASSES. vl
house Pigeon, may, very rarely, assume an independent mode of life; but wild Fantails, or Nuns, or Powters, or
Jacobins, are things unheard of. Our second class will embrace those Pigeons which are found both in the do- mestic and the wild state. These are the birds that seem now and then to oscillate between the abodes of men and the solitude of. cliffs and mountains. The third class will comprise those which appear quite inca- pable of domestication, and are only to be retained in captivity by strict aviary confinement, without which restraint they would immediately fly back to their woods and wildernesses. It is possible that a few domesticable birds, whose tempers have as yet been untried, may be included in this third class, which is so large, embracing such a number of species, that we can only just touch upon some of them in the present volume. It will be seen also that this arrangement does not in the least clash with the classification of the systematic Natu- alist, but is quite independent and irrespective of it. At this early stage of our history we may be asked, and may as well endeavour to answer the question, what is the distinction between the words “ Pigeon” and “ Dove."* Pigeon is of Gallic, Taube (pronounced
* The name of the Pigeon, like that of several of our other domestic birds, has been used by voyagers, in the poverty of their ornithological vocabulary, to denote certain species of oceanic water- fowl. Thus we often read of the Greenland Dove; but the only Dove which can support the rigorous climate of Greenland is a Gull subsisting on fish, blubber, or the lower marine animals. We often m childhood, while reading Cook’s and still earlier voyages, have been struck with the mention of Port Egmont Hens, and wondered whether the Hens which our sailors were so delighted to find in antarctic regions, were as pretty as our neighbour's Bantams, and whether the Port Egmont Cocks, which we took for granted to exist m due proportion tothe Hens, were as splendid as the red game fowls with which we were acquainted. The charm is dispelled by
AMBIGUOUS NOMENCLATURE. (CHAP. III.
Dowby) of Teutonic derivation. That is all the dif. ference we can discover between them. They are mostly convertible terms, Dove being preferred to denote the smaller species. If we followed the analogy of “ beef,” “ mutton,” “veal,” &e., in distinction to “ ox,” “sheep,” “ calf,” &¢., Pigeon should be applied to the bird in its dead, Dove in its living state. But such is not strietly, though it is partially, the custom ; for Shakspeare speaks of “a dish of Doves;” and we usually apply the first term to the larger, and the latter to the smaller species of the Columbine family.
The arrangement now adopted will give an opportu- nity for passing gradually from those Pigeons which are completely domestic, to those that are utterly wild; and then will arise the question, What is the origin of the domestic races? respecting which, we are anxious to exhibit neither a timid silence nor a presumptuous decision. There can be no harm in stating one’s sin- cere belief; and I must say that, having kept Pigeons, though with intervals, from childhood, and having thought much upon the subject, my code of natural his- torical faith is this: that the domestic races of birds and animals are not developments, but creations. I
discovering that the Port Egmont Hens are Skua Gulls. and that the flesh, though eatable in the form of a sea-pie by men who know what it is to have a salt-water appetite, would scarcely do to set before dainty epicures to represent boiled chicken with white sauce. _ Again, Pintado, i e., painted, a term by which the Guinea-fowl is sometimes known, is also still applied by sailors in the South Atlantic to a bird whose habits are entirely marine; but in this case it would appear that the traverser of the ocean has the first claim to the title, which was subsequently, or at least not earlier, bestowed upon the only addition to our poultry stock which Africa has furnished, on which account we have scrupulously abstained from thus using the word in our former volume, considering that the designation ought to be yielded in courtesy to the favourite bird of the old Portuguese discoverers,
a en eR NC th ee NRIs ORNS
CHAP. 111] ORIGINS AND DERIVATIONS. 73
believe that the Almighty gave to the human race tame creatures to serve and feed it, as designedly as he gave it eyes to see with, and hands to work with. I do not believe that the Dunghill Fowl is derived from the Jungle Cock, the Sheep from the Mouflon, the Dog from the Wolf, or the Runt from the Rock Dove, by any parentage whatever. This isa great heresy; but philo- Sophers will be tolerant, and will not too hastily con- demn the holder of such erroneous opinions to the fag- got and the stake, “ for his soul’s health.”
Ts there any higher authority than Buffon and the French writers, for the assertion that the Blue Rock Dove is actually the source and origin of all the Fancy kinds? Both in Temminck and in Buffon, the Pigeons are done by a variety of hands, and the accounts in each are contradictory with themselves. In both authors, the Columba livia, as occupying the Dovecotes of the old régime, is well described; much better than any other Species. Buffon says, that in these Dovecotes, contain- ing perhaps hundreds of birds, the occurrence of even a white or albino bird is rare. His account of those Dove- cote Pigeons much reminds us, in its details, of the do- mesticity of Bees*. Have Bees been rendered domestic by man ?—or was not their immediate capability for the
* Iremember being asked by a gentleman, whether, if he placed an empty hive in his garden, the Bees that were flying to and fro there, on perceiving the convenience, would enter it one by one, and 80 congregating, abide and store it with honeycomb: which made me laugh in my sleeve at his small acquirement of natural history.
ut it would not be so great an absurdity, in a thinly-peopled country, to build a Dove-cote in a site that was as suitable for
lgeons as a garden is for Bees, with the intention that wild Rock : oves should come and tenant it, especially if they were decoyed, in ; e first Instance, by a pair of young birds established there, and by e tempting allurements of a few peas and a little salt.
74 GROUND OF THE RECEIVED OPINION [CHAP. III.
occupancy of hives when prepared for them by man, im- planted in them by their Creator—or by nature, if the term be preferred ; but, have we had much to do with it? Or, have we created any fancy breeds of Bees, in the same way that we are supposed to have originated fancy breeds of Pigeons?
It is true that in all modern works on Ornithology which we have read, it is taken for granted, without in- quiry, as an acknowledged fact which does not admit of doubt, that our Fancy Pigeons are all derived, by the transmuting effects of domestication, from the Rock Dove. Now no one need doubt that one of our dove- house Pigeons is derived from the wild Rock Dove; but we believe that it is not generally known how iden- tical they are, how closely the wild bird approaches the domestic one, how much the occupant of the dovehouse clings to the manners of its forefathers, and how soon it is drawn off to pursue exactly their course of life. Mr. Yarrell’s beautiful figure of the Rock Dove might be taken for a well-selected specimen of the domestic race descended from it. The only self-originated va- riations amongst dovehouse Pigeons that we have heard of, are different depths of hue. There sometimes are produced a few light blue or lavender individuals, like those which occasionally occur amongst Guinea fowl; but further changes are attributable to intermixture with stray tame or Fancy Pigeons. And it will be seen that the combination of existing kinds is a very different thing to the originating of novel breeds.
Unfortunately, writers on natural history, whose works it is impossible to read without pleasure and admiration, have received this opinion, as a sort of sci- entific heir-loom, and have transmitted it undisturbed
a
CHAP. 111.) LITTLE INVESTIGATED BY NATURALISTS. 75
to their disciples and successors. Zoologists are too busy with the vast array of objects they have to set in order, to be able to spare much time on the diversities of domesticated animals, and are, I may be permitted to say, too easily contented to receive without investi- gation the traditional accounts offered to them by per- sons whom they believe good authority in that depart- ment. Mr. Selby, in his elegant volume on Pigeons, leans mainly on “ the opinion of the most eminent na- turalists as to the origin of the peculiar varieties in the domesticated bird, which is strongly insisted on by M. Temminck in his valuable work, the “ Histoire Gené- vale Naturelle des Pigeons.” Temminck’s work on the Pigeons and gallinaceous Birds is really so valuable, that it has, we believe, remained untranslated only be- cause it is unavoidably deficient in giving the habits and life of the creatures it describes; but he avows his dis- taste for the study of Fancy Pigeons; “ it is only with a degree of disgust that we occupy ourselves with them: one can scarely treat of these degraded races, except by Simple suppositions, which are for the most part made at hazard.” But “ suppositions” in natural history, which are merely “ hazarded for the most part,” ought not to be made use of as trustworthy arguments to sup- port the imaginative theories of Buffon, or as safe pre- mises whence to deduce such schemes of displaying the processes of Creation, as are put forth by the Author of the “ Vestiges.” After Temminck’s confession of disgust at his subject, we may withhold our implicit confidence in his authority when he says, “ I combine in this article (Columba livia), and regard as so many descendants of the Biset sauvage, all the dovehouse Pigeons, the diverse races of Pigeons of the aviary, which,
ESTIMATE OF TEMMINCK'S AUTHORITY. [cwap. 111.
by the form of their beak and their principal parts, resemble this bird, the Domestic Pigeon of naturalists, the pretended species of Roman Pigeon and its varie- ties, and the Rock Pigeon or Rocherai. These birds produce together fertile individuals, which reproduce in their turn, and form by the interference. of Man, those singular races which we remark in the Pigeons of the aviary; these races are maintained by the care which is taken to assort them. Of these Pigeons, especially, the different shudes are innumerable. Men, in per- fecting them for their pleasure, have multiplied these races more from luxury than necessity ; they have al- tered their forms, and their sentiment of liberty is found to be totally destroyed. (?)
“ The production of great numbers is the source of varieties in species. Our Dovecotes, peopled with a quantity of Pigeons accustomed and familiarised to these buildings, have successively offered accidental varieties, among which the most beautiful, and those with the most singular variety of colours, will be sure to be chosen. These, isolated from the flock, reared with assiduous care and assorted according to fancy, have successively generated all these singular races of which Man is the Creator, and which, without him, would never have existed.”
The process, or rather, we believe, the project for the Creation of new species by Man, runs on smoothly
enough in the prospectus here given; but what people, | who are sceptical about the result, want, is, the sudden | appearance in a Dovecote of blue Rock Pigeons, of | two nestlings as much differing from their parents, as | the Fantail, or Turbit, do from them. These instances -are not recorded: nor can any owner of the vastest flock
Se ee ee SR ce CT mong enamel tient Sateen” Sem
CHAP. 11.) ESTIMATE OF TEMMINCK’S AUTHORITY. var’
produce such, Several such examples would be strictly \ demanded to establish any novel principle in physiology; \ but the current, oft-repeated notion, that all Fancy | Pigeons are modifications of the Rock Dove, is allowed — to pass as a matter of course.
Temminck’s aversion to the task of disentangling do- mesticated species, led him to lean in these matters far too much on the guidance of such men as Buffon, Oli- vier de Serres, and Parmentier. The first believed that climate alone could effect such transformations as would now be accounted miraculous. However, when Tem- minck does think for himself, he arrives at a conclusion not exactly consistent with the views of his predecessors, , or with his own introductory announcement. “The Turbit,” (Le Pigeon à Oravate,) he says, “ does not will- ingly pair with other Pigeons. This breed appears to us to have constant characters which scarcely permit us | to suspect that it was originally derived from the Rock | Dove; the bill, excessively short, thick and hard, sepa- rates these Pigeons widely from other breeds; the diffi- | culty which amateurs experience in making them pro- pagate with the different breeds derived from the Rock Dove, joined to their small stature, destroy in some sort all Supposition in respect to their specific identity. We must nevertheless, not permit ourselves to form any con- Jectures as to the origin of these Pigeons à Cravate; the date of their enslavement, which runs back into ages too remote, will be an obstacle to all strict inquiry.”
It does not follow, that because the orgin of a race of beings is removed beyond our search, that we are there- fore at liberty to propose the first theory that comes to hand, or, indeed, any theory, except those of either Au- ‘ochthonism (native growth) or importation, which is not
78 DIFFICULTIES [CHAP. IIT.
supported by the strongest proofs, and which will bear the most searching test. When a chemist announces to the world a new discovery, a new mode of combining or separating material atoms, his declaration is listened to. and other chemists attempt to verify his facts. If they can succeed in doing what he asserts that he has done, they are sure he is right; if they cannot they believe him to be wrong, and to have been deceived by some error in his observations.
Now we have in our aviaries certain curious forms of Pigeons, very remarkable and very unlike each other. We are told they are all derived by selection, and com- bination, and special modes of rearing (by soins parti- culiers assidus—very favourite words of Temminck), from another race as different from them as they are from each other. Proofs of this transmutation are as much wanted, as they are of the chemist’s solitary experiment, till it is repeated. We demand, therefore, to have the Zoological experiment repeated: let man create (we hardly dare use the expression) a truly new species, or race, or breed of Pigeons, quite unlike those now existing, by the stated modes of combination and selection, or in any other way. The London Zoological Society,. with every means which wealth, power, and talent can com- mand, has not done it. The experiment cannot be veri- fied. The conclusions have been arrived at too hastily.
Mr. Yarrel!, to whom British Zoology owes so much, both for the valuable information he has imparted to the world, and the elegant form in which it has been given—he also, unfortunately, has declined to include in his work figures, or lengthened descriptions, of those birds which exist in this country only in a domesticated state. Scientific naturalists all seem to avoid the task
Ce ee ce et et Se enna a meme | tine anneal tensa” e
CHAP. III.] AND DOUBTS. 79
of investigating the history of domesticated creatures ; and when they are compelled to touch upon the subject, are apt to generalize hastily, and glide through the dif- ferent forms that are presented to them with unsatis- factory rapidity. Mr. Yarrell, however, asserts, like Temminck, without offering the least evidence, “ that there appears to be no reason to doubt that the Rock Dove is the species from which our domestic Pigeons were originally derived. .. . . The numerous and re- markable fancy Pigeons, however first: established, are now maintained and perpetuated by selection and re- striction, and some of them are among the most curious of Zoological results. In some instances a remarkable change has been effected in the character of the feather; thus in the Jacobins, more frequently for brevity’s sake called Jacks, there is a range of feathers inverted quite - over the hinder part of the head, and reaching down on each side of the neck as low as the wings, forming a hood. Another change, equally extraordinary, has been effected in that variety called the Broad-tailed Shakers; | the tail-feathers in these birds, all beautifully spread, — amount to thirty-six, though the normal number of tail- feathers is but twelve. 3 “The changes, however, in some Fancy Pigeons are not confined to the feathers, but modifications in form are effected in the bones. A comparison of the Short- faced Tumbler and the Carrier, exhibits the first-named With a very small round head, and a short, straight, conical beak, not more than half an inch in length, with a proportionally elongated head.” * tiki surprising, if the effects of domestication are
* British Birds, vol. ii. p. 263.
80 DIFFICULTIES AND [CHAP. III.
really so great, that abundant food has not made the Pigeons produce more than their usual two eggs, as well as change their appearance so completely. It ought to make them extend their laying from the dual to the plural number, This would be a less remarkable change than those which are supposed to have taken place. But it never happens. We ought, in truth, to be more thankful than we are for the varied bounty of Providence in creating the Pigeons to be prolific of young, and to supply an abundance of flesh in their proper regions, while the Fowls are made to offer to us, in profusion, a different kind of aliment.
In the case of domesticated birds and animals, the science of Comparative Anatomy hesitates to establish the same distinctions that it is made, in the proficient hands of Mr. Yarrell, to determine with the Swans, and by M. Temminck with the Guans, and which, to some minds, it ought to draw between Pigeons, unless the actual process of transition from the Rock Dove toa F'an-tail or Carrier has actually been observed and recorded while going on, and can be repeated whenever Man chooses to set about the task. And students, who are not satisfied with the mere dictum and opinion of a fallible, though learned, authority, have a right to re- quire either documents proving how, when, and where these races were first established, or else the exhibition | of a few more zoological results, to make it possible to their belief that any such results ever have been pro- duced in the way asserted.
I have thus made bold to state a few reasons for historic doubts whether the French savans and their followers are standing on quite sure and impregnable ground, when they derive all these curious races from
wi ae ee er ee ce nein ae nematic i n pent
CHAP. I11.] DOUBTS. 81
the Rock Dove, as the results, in the first instance, of domestication, special treatment and soins particuliers.
In the first place, when any wide departure from the usual course of nature is announced as having taken place, it is required that those who make the announce- ment, produce evidence of the appearance of the pro- digy, and the circumstances that attended it. Now the usual course of nature in these days is, that the off- Spring of all creatures resemble their parents, within tolerably close limits, which, though not exactly defined, are so well understood that any excessive aberration from them is immediately remarked. Exceptions to this usual course do occur from time to time, in the Shape of imperfect animals and monsters, with a de- ficiency, or a duplication of parts, double-bodied, some- times even headless. Such are incapable frequently of existence, much less of reproduction. In hybrids, too, between species or varieties that are allied with suffi- cient closeness to be able to procreate young together, the usual course of nature is, that the offspring bear a varying proportion of resemblance to both parents : their forms are intermediate between the two, not some-
thing unlike to either. Now the production of a pair of .
Fantails, as an example, from a pair of Rock Doves,
would be a circumstance so out of the course of nature, ,
as to constitute one of those prodigies demanding every, unquestionable confirmation. If it be said that the Fantail, or, as the French call it, Pigeon Paon, or Pea- cock Pigeon, is a hybrid, there is no known Pigeon, nor any other bird, capable of being the progenitor of such an offspring, with the Rock Dove. But a class of naturalists assert that it is the offspring of the Rock Dove, They affirm a prodigy to have taken place, with- G
artnet
FURTHER DOUBTS. [CHAP. III.
out being able to point out the time, the locality, or the means. We surely cannot be condemned for profess- ing utter scepticism in such an unsupported theory, and a disbelief in so unattested a history. Other sceptics have expressed their doubts on far weightier matters, with much more conclusive testimony to allay those doubts.
Secondly, in the absence of these requisite par- ticulars from the upholders of the transmutative theory of creation, we are led to search among the older orni- thologists for what can be found to illustrate the point. We do not there light upon any mention of the sudden appearance of new forms in the ancient Dovecotes.
Aldrovandi (the volume to which we refer bears date 1637) speaks of several of the Fancy Pigeons, not as new, or produced by breeding, but as peregrinas, foreign introductions, and points out the traditional source from whence some of them were obtained. The Jacobines, «which are called culcellate, monachine, and at Fer- rara, Sorelle, or Nuns,” he styles the Columba Cypria, or Dove of Cyprus. Another sort is the Columba Cre- tensis, or Cretan Pigeon; and there are, besides, the Persian and the Turkish. That the ancients were not acquainted with so many varieties as ourselves is to be imagined, from their scanty geographical knowledge and limited foreign intercourse. Here is the amount of Aldrovandi’s information: ‘‘ But whether M. Varro, Aristotle, and the other ancients, were acquainted with the species of Pigeons which our times now furnish, I not only do not doubt about, but am not even led to believe it, although I well know that the ancient Romans had an insane passion for Pigeons, as I have before related from Pliny. Now-a-days, such a diver-
Lomee meee aa e E ie | ii,
CHAP. 111.) WHAT FORMER ORNITHOLOGISTS TELL US. 83
sity of Pigeons is found in Europe, and principally, as I hear, with the Belge, and, among these, with the Dutch, that I could scarcely credit what I was told by a man who in other respects is most trustworthy. I also remember that this nation, if any, takes an extra- vagant delight in Pigeons, and therefore keeps as many sorts as possible. For that gentleman told me that, besides the common domestic and Rock Pigeons, of which they had besides an immense number, there was a certain sort generally twice the size of the common dove-house kind, with bristly, that is feathered feet, which, while it is flying, and while it is cooing, swells out its crop into an immense tumour; the larger they _ display it in their flight, the better- bred they are pro- | nounced to be. That kind is called kroppers, that is, | large-throated Pigeons, with which name they also come to us, for they are sometimes brought even to Italy. Ornithologus records that he observed Pigeons at Venice, which were almost equal to Hens in size; but his belief that they are the produce of tamed Ring Doves of the largest size, is in my judgment entirely wrong, for Ring Doves are never tamed. But whether those, which that. gentleman said were kept in Holland, be the same with the Campanian Pigeons of Pliny, who Writes that the largest are bred in Campania, I dare not affirm, although meanwhile I would not in the least deny. Bellonius certainly is of his opinion, and asserts that those are mistaken who suppose that Pliny and the other ancients were unacquainted with them.” _ The intelligent reader, who can bring to this sub- ject a mind unprejudiced by previous statements and Opinions, and who can, as he would be advised by an impartial judge, banish from his thoughts whatever he G2
84. THE READER WILL SUM UP THE EVIDENCE. [CHAP. III.
may have heard out of court, will, when he has read the foregoing remarks, perhaps be led to inquire whether the ideas current amongst the great majority of natu- ralists be not a clever, plausible, and well-expressed hypothesis, rather than a series of facts which we may admit without sure and unmistakable evidence for them. The evidence is wanting: the steps by which so wonderful a change in the form and habits of the same creature have been made, eannot be shown; and we may be allowed, without offence, to hesitate before we give in our adherence to the grand theory, that a gradual change is going on in the nature and condition of all animated creatures.
We would wish to speak of Temminck and his con- temporaries with all due respect. Natural science owes them much; they performed well the difficult task of arranging and describing the existing forms which were offered to their study. Without this arrangement and classification, as far as it proceeded, their followers could have little hope of further advancing science. They performed a great work, and we ought to be most thankful to them for it. But that is no reason why we should set up Temminck, or Buffon, or Lamarck, or Blumenbach, as idols to be blindly worshipped, as was Aristotle of yore, and push aside as profane and here- tical any suspicion which will intrude itself, that some of their conclusions, on a most mysterious and difficult question, may possibly have been hasty, or even incor- rect ;—a question, too, for information respecting which they confessedly relied upon other and less acute per- sons, and which they really had not time and leisure, amidst their many herculean tasks, to investigate for themselves. Temminck at least indicates, by many ex-
CHAP, IIL] SCHEME OF ARRANGEMENT. So
pressions which he casually lets fall, that had he pur- sued such an inquiry personally, he would have been more slow in putting forth those views, which we have ventured to discuss, of the derivation of all our Fancy Pigeons from the Columba livia, or Rock Dove.
The reader shall now have our scheme of arrange- ment :-—
I. Pigeons which are found in the domestic state
only eas | Fantails. Turbits. `? È Runts. Barbs. © 1 Trumpeters.. Tumblers. ° Archangels. ; Bald Pates. > Nuns. Powters. / / Jacobins. Carriers.
Lace Pigeons. Frizzled Pigeons.
II. Pigeons which are found both in a domestic and a wild state :—
Blue Rock Dove Indian Rock Pigeon (Columba livia of authors). (Columba intermedia of Strick- land). Dovehouse Pigeon Collared Turtle (Columba affinis of Blythe). (Turtur risoria).
III. Pigeons not capable of true domestication :— The Passenger Pigeon. Bronze-winged Pigeons. The Long-tailed Senegal Pigeon. Harlequin Pigeons.
&e. &e. &e. &e.
Py
Bald-pate. Runt. Tur bit. Fantail.
CHAPTER IV.
DOMESTIC PIGEONS.
FANTAILS; their powers.—Effects of crossing.—Accident to one.—Pigeon Paon.—The lean poet of Cos.—Runts.—Pigeon mondains.—Comparison of eggs and weights.—Synonyms of Runts.—Runts at sea.—Rodney’s bantam.—Pecu- liarities of Runts.—Runts in Italy.—Effects of crossing.—Trumpeters.—Arch- angel Pigeons.—Nuns.—Jacobines.—Columbarian distinctions.—Supposed cari- cature.—Turbits.—Temminck’s ideas.—Owls.—Progress of the young.—Rapid growth.—Barbs.—_Tumblers.—Their performance in the air.—Feats of wing.— The Almond.—Peculiarity of form.—Learning to tumble.—Baldpates.—Hel- mets.—Powters and Croppers.—Their carriage, flight, and colouring. —Defects and remedies.—Crosses.—Carriers.—Castle of the birds.—How they find their way.—Phrenological hypothesis.—Carriers in Turkey.—Sir John Ross’s birds. —Explanation.—Antwerp Carriers.—De Beranger.—English Carriers,—Oriental origin.—Lace and Frizzled Pigeons.—Eggs and young of the Columbide. —Quarrels and attachments.—Mating.—Love of home.—Food.—Merits of the Runts.—Etymology of the Trumpeter.
Faytaizs are by no means the miserable degraded monsters that many writers would induce us to believe
CHAP. Iv FANTAILS.—EFFECTS OF CROSSING: 87
them to be. They may be, and often are, closely kept in cages, or dealers’ pens, till they are cramped and out of health, The most robust wild pigeon would become so under the same circumstances. But if fairly used, they are respectably vigorous, It is a mistake to suppose that they are deficient in power of flight, unless their muscles have been enfeebled by long incar- ceration. Their tail is not so much in their way, and therefore not so unnatural (if hard names be allowed to have any force), as the train of the Peacock. It is true the tail of the Fantail consists, or ought to consist, of thirty-six feathers—three times the number which most other Pigeons can boast of; but it is an excellent | aérial rudder notwithstanding. A pair of Fantails given | me early this spring (1850) by a friend living a few | miles distant, were suffered to fly very soon after their ia} arrival here, on the supposition that they could not | i possibly return home by their own carriage. Nor did
they. But they took a very decided flight of half a mile Hi in the direction of their old home, and then finding they i could not make out their way, flew back again. Then, | instead of nesting in the Pigeon-loft, the cock bird chose to carry his bundle of twigs to the gutter on the | roof of our house, in a snug nook just out of the way
of the rain-stream; and they would have hatched there but for the late severe frosts of that season, which addled their eggs.
When Fantails breed with other Pigeons, in the off- spring sometimes the fan tail entirely disappears, some- times a half fantail remains; and I am cognisant of a | case where, by coupling a true Fantail with such a bird l |
as the last mentioned, the pure race was re-established. It is probable (but I am not able to state it) that in ¢
FANTAILS.— PECULIARITIES. (CHAP. Iv.
this case the true Fantail was a male, and the half-bred of male Fantail parentage. In cross-bred Pigeons, as far as my own observations have gone, the male influ- ence is nearly paramount. Similar facts have also oc- curred in the much larger experience of the London Zoological Society, as I am assured by Mr. James Hunt, their intelligent head-keeper. Results with the same tendency have proceeded from crosses in other genera, as is instanced in Lord Derby’s wonderful experiment with the common Colchicus and versicolor Pheasants, as detailed in the December number of the Quarterly Review for 1850, by which it appears that a solitary male bird may prove competent to introduce his species to Great Britain, by a temporary alliance with a female quite an alien to his own blood. Ina letter from Mr. Edward Blythe, dated Calcutta, October 8, 1850, he kindly informs me, “A native friend of mine has this _ season bred two fine Hybrids between the male Pavo | muticus and the common Peahen, apparently a male and | afemale. They take much after the papa, and the male should be a splendid bird when he gets his full plu- mage.” The same is the rule with many quadrupeds, Mules are not greatly in favour with ladies and gentle- men in England, and therefore the less is known about them by educated people; but the humbler class of Horse and Donkey dealers will tell at once, by the ears and hoofs, as well as by the temper and disposition, whe- ther any Mule, offered for sale, had a Mare or a Donkey for its mamma. The Mule children of the latter animal are much more valuable, as they exhibit not only the form, \ but the docility of the Horse rather than of the Ass. Fantails are mostly of a pure snowy white, which, with their peculiar carriage, gives them some resem-
CHAP. Ty.] A FANTAIL’S MISADVENTURE. 89
blance to miniature Swans. Rarely, they are quite black; occasionally, they are seen white, with slate- coloured patches on the shoulders, like Turbits. A sin- gular habit is the trembling motion of the throat, which seems to be caused by excitement in the bird. The same action is observed in the Runts, in a less degree. The iris of the Fantail is of a dark hazel, the pupil black, which gives to the eye a fulness of expression quite different to what is seen in most other birds. I mention this, because Colonel Sykes, in the Transactions of the Zoological Society *, makes the colour of the iris an important guide in determining the affinities or dissimi- larities of species, believing it occasionally to manifest even generic distinctions. Now amongst fancy Pigeons the iris varies greatly, and is thought of much conse- quence, as is known to every amateur. ‘The cere, at the base of the Fantail’s bill, looks as if covered withawhite =, powder. These birds, Willughby tells us, are called “4/7 Broad-tailed Shakers; ‘ Shakers, because they do almost constantly shake, or wag their heads and necks up and down; Broad-tailed, from the great number of feathers they have in their tails; they say, not fewer than twenty- Six.. When they walk up and down, they do for the most part hold their tails erect like a Hen or Turkey-Cock.” +
A friend writes, “ I had a white Fantail Pigeon which lived nine years, and died at last almost blind with old age. But the most curious thing which ever happened to her, is that she fell down one of the hothouse chimnies, and then walked along about sixty feet of the flue, that was nearly choked up with soot, before she got into the furnace, in which there luckily was no fire. The door happened to be shut, and poor
* Vol. ii. pp. 7, 8. - + Willughby, p. 181.
90 PIGEON PAON. [CHAP. Iv.
old Fanny lived there five days without food before her prison door happened to be opened. When at last she eame forth, instead of being milk white, she was all dingy, like a blackamoor.”—J. W.
Pigeons generally can bear long fasts, and perform long journeys, better than common fowls. Their tena- ciousness of life under starvation must be considerable. I have seen the remains of a Pigeon that had been starved to death in a hole in a church wall; and the webs of the feathers had all been absorbed, leaving the shafts only remaining before the poor bird died at last.
“ The Pigeon Paon or Peacock Pigeon,” says Tem- minck, “is so named, because it has the faculty of erecting and displaying its tail nearly in the same way in which the Peacock raises and expands his dorsal fea- thers. This race might also be called Pigeons Dindons, or Turkey Pigeons, their caudal feathers being also placed on an erector muscle capable of contraction and extension at pleasure.”—But here M. Temminck is surely in error: the tail of the Fantail is a/ways ex- panded and displayed, and when other domestic Pigeons do spread their tail in the actions of courtship, it is brought downwards, so as to sweep the ground like a stiff train, not upwards like the Turkey or the Pea- fowl. “ When they raise their tail,” they bring it for- ward; [and it is always raised and brought forward, except in flight;] “as they at the same time draw back the head, it touches the tail; and when the bird wishes to look behind itself, it passes its head between the in- terval of the two planes which compose the tail. They usually tremble during the whole time of this operation, and their body then seems to be agitated by the violent contraction of the muscles. It is generally while making
ee ee Ee To = on me NNN RRR ŘS nn
CHAP. 1V.) THE LEAN POET OF COS.—RUNTS. 91
love that they thus display their tail ; but they also set themselves off in this way at other times.” That is, in plain English and in matter of fact, the position in which the tail-feathers are fixed, is unalterable.
“ These Pigeons are not much sought by amateurs ; they seldom quit the precincts of their aviary; appa- rently the fear of being carried away by the wind (which, acting forcibly upon their broad tail would infallibly upset them),* is the reason why they do not venture far from their domicile, nor undertake long journeys. Lastly, these Pigeons which cannot by their own powers travel far, have been transported to a great distance by Man; perhaps, even, they are not natives of our climate, for many doubts arise against their specific identity with the wild Rock Dove. Striking characters, such as the number of tail-feathers, do not permit us to consider the wild Rock Dove as the type of the Fantail Pigeons.
“ The Fantails are furnished with a considerable num- ber of caudal plumes; the greater part of indigenous and exotic species of Pigeons, have generally only twelve\ « tail-feathers, more or less. The choicest have thirty | tail feathers; the majority of the Fantails have thirty- | two and even thirty-four, but such are rare.
* In this respect the Fantails remind us of Ælian’s Philetas, the lean poet of Cos, who was so slim and slight, that, being liable to e carried away by the slightest acting force, he wore (they say) leaden soles to his sandals, lest he should be borne off by the wind, when it happened to be high. “ But,” remarks Ælian gravely, “ if he was so weak as to be unable to withstand the wind, how could he manage to carry about such a burden with him? J do not believe everything that I read (he was a writer); spè pèy ody Tò Asx Oty où mei.” The reader, therefore, need not load his Fantails with
ee clogs on the questionable example of Philetas the Blown- ay.
~, S}; » hx
92 PIGEONS MONDAINS. [CHAP. IV.
‘The Shakers, and those which have the tail only partially elevated, are of this race.”
The Runts are by far the largest and heaviest race of domestic Pigeons, and are less known and cultivated in this country than they deserve to be, mainly because their powers of flight are not such as to afford much amusement to the amateur. But they are very prolific, if placed in favourable circumstances. A pair, for which I am indebted to Mr. James Kemp, of Great Yarmouth, last season (1849) produced twelve young ones. Their heaviness unfits them for being the occu- pants of ordinary dovecotes; and they are best accom- modated in a low house or nesting-place, raised only a few feet from the ground. Many a rabbit-hutch would be very easily convertible into a convenient Runt-locker, where the birds might be petted, and wherein they would bring forth abundantly. The Runts prefer walk- ing and resting on the ground, to perching on buildings, or strutting on roofs*. Hence Buffon very properly calls them Pigeons mondains, which we might English by applying to them the designation of Ground-Doves, were not that term already appropriated by a family of foreign wild Pigeons. The eggs of Runts are much larger than those of other breeds, as may be seen by the outline here given, of the exact natural size, of eggs of the Runt, the Nun, and the Collared Turtle, to show _ their relative proportions. Buffon truly says that the mondains are nearly as big as little Hens. A note of
* Their love of slightly-elevated nesting-places has long been observed. “Perchance these may be the same with those which, Aldrovandus tells us, are called by his countrymen Colombe sotto banche, that is, Pigeons under forms or benches, from their place ; of various colours, and bigger than the common wild Pigeons in- habiting Dove-cotes.”— Willughby, p. 181.
CHAP. Iv.] COMPARISON OF EGGS AND WEIGHTS. 98
f RUNT. | |
NUN. COLLARED TURTLE.
` their weight, and of that of a few other Pigeons, made
Nov. 6, 1849, will show how much more ponderous they are than the rest of their brethren. Of course, live weights are given.
Pair of Leghorn Runts „ Jacobins », Cinnamon Tumblers » Archangel Pigeons
», Blue Rocks 6% í >, Croppers
>» Nuns . 10
» Barbs x z 9
„ Blue Antwerp Carriers
3 Black do. Aine 3 A 3 Pair—Owl Cock, mated with Turbit Hen Pair of Collared Turtles Another pair of Leghorn Runts
OOH H HH et He eH eS — ejo
SYNONYMES OF RUNTS. [CHAP. IV.
The contrast of weight is remarkable: but the point respecting Runts which most deserves the notice of speculative naturalists, is their extreme antiquity. The notices of them in Pliny, and other nearly contemporary writers, are but modern records; for Dr. Buckland enumerates the bones of the Pigeon among the remains in the cave at Kirkdale, and figures a bone which he says approaches closely to the Spanish Runt, which is one of the largest of the Pigeon tribe. Ever since the classic period these birds have been celebrated among the poultry produce of the shores of the Mediterranean.
“ The greater tame Pigeon, called in Italian, Tronfo and Asturnellato ; in English, a Runt; a name (as I suppose) corrupted from the Italian Tronfo: though, to say the truth, what this Italian word Tronfo signifies, and consequently why this kind of Pigeon is so called, I am altogether ignorant. Some call them Columbe Russice, Russia-Pigeons, whether because they are brought to us out of Russia, or from some agreement of the names Runt and Russia, I know not. These seem to be the Campania Pigeons of Pliny. They vary much in colour, as most other domestic birds: wherefore it is to no purpose to describe them by their colours.” *
Their name of Russia-Pigeons, I can in part explain. The Runts in my possession were purchased at Great Yarmouth, as ‘ Russian Carriers’—admirable letter- carriers they would be, when they can hardly carry themselves through the air! But they came by their title thus: Vessels from Yarmouth go laden with red herrings to the Mediterranean and the Levant, and having exchanged their cargoes there for fruits, oil,
* Willughby, p. 181.
CHAP. Iv.] RUNTS AT SEA.—RODNEY'S BANTAM. 95
maccaroni, &c., frequently sail thence direct to Russia —to St. Petersburgh or Archangel,—without touching port at Yarmouth, though they may even perhaps pass through the Roads, and get a glimpse of their town, and speak a friendly vessel or two. The Yarmouth sailors are very fond of buying Pigeons in the Mediter- ranean ports, and they are great pets on board ship*. They breed there in lockers and hen-coops, and are sometimes allowed their liberty, and permitted to fly round about the vessel, while she is pursuing her course on a fine day. If the breeze is but steady they get on very well, and enjoy themselves as much as they would in calm weather on shore. The mathematical reader will remember, that as the wind and the ship are both proceeding (we will suppose the ship to be sailing right before the wind) in one direction, the eacess of the velo- city of the wind above that of the ship is all the Pigeons would have to contend with; and that, ina fast sailer, is nothing formidable, while a moderate breeze is blowing. It is squally weather that would be their ruin; and then they are kept safe within-doors. At the Russian ports the ship parts with her cargo of fruits, &c., perhaps also with some of her Pigeons, and returns home, laden with tallow, hemp, hides, &c.; and, perhaps, the choicest of the birds are after all brought home to please a friendly
* These feathered favourites at sea are particularly interesting. tere is one which ought to be immortalised. It would do capitally either for a statuette or a bas-relief. ;
“In the famous victory of the 12th April, a little Bantam Cock perched himself upon the poop of Rodney’s ship, and at every broad- side that was poured into the ‘ Ville de Paris, clapt his wings and crew. Rodney gave special orders that this Cock should be taken care of as long as he lived.”—Southey’s Common Place Book, 2nd Series, p. 607.
96 RUNTS—THEIR PECULIARITIES. (CHAP, IV.
townsman or townswoman. But they come from Rus- sia; and therefore, Russian they are called. From Alex- andria is usually obtained alargefeather-footed bird, much resembling, if not identical with, the Trumpeter. These are often styled Muscovy Pigeons. This summer I pur- chased in Great Yarmouth, of my thoroughly honest friend, Jack Hall, a pair of birds which were allowed to retain their name of Egyptian Pigeons. The vessel, on board which they were cruising, was wrecked in the Roads, and the crew and passengers, including four pairs of Pigeons, all saved. They were Runts of the second degree of magnitude, cinnamon coloured, with a slight vinous under tint.
These Pigeons vary in colour; also in having feet feathered or not; and somewhat in bulk ; but the limits , of their variations are not hard for the experienced eye
to detect, though not easy to describe. Fulness of the cere at the base of the bill, terrestrial habits of life, and plumpness and inactivity of body, are among their prin- cipal characteristics. Their prevailing colours are shades of brown, light slate colour, and white. Their cooing is less distinct than in other breeds, having a sort of muffled sound. They tremble when excited, though not so much as the Fantails. ‘Spanish Runt,” “ Leghorn Runt,” are both names which indicate their Mediterra- nean home. Many travellers in Italy have noticed, with retrospective relish, the size and flavour of these excel- lent birds. Weremember once at Montefiascone having complained (not very angrily) of a dinner-bill, which seemed to amount to more pauls than might have been expected in the not too stylish Albergho of that not too important town; but we were met by the unanswerable reply from the handsome padrona, “ Yes, Signore, the
CHAP. 1V.) RUNTS IN ITALY.-—-EFFECTS OF CROSSING. 97
nota is high; but Ecco! Signore, you have had a flask of the famous Montefiascone—il rè di vino !—and two Pigeons!”
The reader must have another instance; all the bet- ter that it is not a modern one.
“ Wee came home by the island of Nisida, some two miles in compasse, belonging to one gentleman, who in it keeps all creatures tame by force, haueing no way to get from him, in sight of Caprea, once the delight of Tiberius, and so under the mountain Pausilippo again, with torches in our hands, it being night before wee could reach it, which wee passed safely ; the better by reason that the holy virgin is gouuernesse of this cauern, and hath a chappell dedicated to her in the middle of it. By this time you must coniecture wee had a good stomach to our supper, which wee made of pigeons, the best heare without controuersy in the world, as big as pullets.”*
Notwithstanding the disproportion of size and incon- { gruity of habits, Runts breed freely with other domestic | Pigeons. One of my cock Runts mated with a Bald-pate: | all their offspring, except one bird, resembled. their father | entirely, and their mother not at all. Those were all eaten, so we did not see what their young would turn out tobe. Another male Runt mated with a Nun, with like result; all conventual character disappeared from the offspring, and the illegitimate family suffered extinction ia pie. Mr. James Kemp had a hybrid between a Brown Runt and a White Fantail, in which the fan tail was quite obliterated. The bird had no brown feathers, | being principally white: so that it resembled neither
* Mr, Edward Browne to Mr, Craven, 1664. B
98 TRUMPETERS.—WHY SO CALLED. [CHAP. IV.
parent. Which was male and which female I am unable to state. It was, however, larger than ordinary-sized Pigeons.
“The TRUMPETER,” says the Treatise, “is a bird much about the size of a Laugher (some sort of Runt ?), and very runtishly made; they are generally pearl-ey’d, black-mottled, very feather-footed and leg’ d, turn-crown’d like the Nun, and sometimes like a Finnikin, but much larger, which are reckoned the better sort, as being more melodious ; but the best characteristic to know them, is a tuft of feathers growing at the root of the beak; and the larger this tuft is, the more they are esteemed: the reason of their name is from their imitating the sound of a trumpet after playing; the more salacious they are, the more they will trumpet; therefore, if you have a mind to be often entertained with their melody, you must give them plenty of hemp-seed, otherwise they will
» seldom trumpet much, except in the spring, when they Aare naturally more salacious than usual.”
Itseems more probable that the Trumpeter took itsname froin its military air: the helmet-like turn of feathers at the back of the head, the booted legs, and the fierce moustache at the base of the bill, give it quite a soldier-
_ like appearance. I have not heard much in their “ trum- \ petings” that differs greatly from the cooing of other | Runts (for such they may be considered to be): perhaps ' the inspiration at the end of the coo may be a little more sonorous. But Pliny’s description (lib. x. 52) is applicable to all domestic Pigeons. “ In all, the song, similar and the same, is completed in a trine verse, be- sides a groaning conclusion. In winter they are mute, in spring vocal.” A well-grown moustache is the point
?
cHAP.Iv.] ARCHANGEL PIGEONS—CHARACTERISTICS. 99
which the amateur is advised most strongly to insist © upon. Good Trumpeters are not common. Occasion- ally they are met with pure white.
The AromancEL Piexon is not mentioned in any treatise on the subject that I have met with: nor can I - ascertain whether it owes its name to having been ori- ginally brought to us from the Russian port, or vid Arch- angel from some other quarter, as Tartary or India. My first glimpse of the bird was at Knowsley; and I have Since, through the liberal kindness of the Earl of Derby, become possessed of a pair from those. His lordship had them from the Messrs. Baker, of Chelsea. The colour- ing-of these birds is both rich and unique. The head, neck, and fore part of the back and body, is chestnut, or copper-colour, with changeable hues in different lights. The tail, wings, and hinder parts of the body are of a sort of blue-black ; but many of the feathers on the back and Shoulders are metallic and iridescent—a peculiarity not usual in other domestic Pigeons. The chestnut and blue- black portions of the bird do not terminate abruptly, but are gently shaded into each other. There is a darker bar at the end of the tail. The iris is very bright orange- red: the feet clean and unfeathered, and bright red. Archangel Pigeons have a turn of feathers at the back of the head very similar to that of the Trumpeter, or to_ Aldrovandi’s woodcuts of his Columba Cypria. It is the colouring rather than the form which so specially j distinguishes them. Their size is very much that of the Rock Dove, Itis curious, that of two Archangel Pigeons | sent me by a Yorkshire friend, one had the “turn” at | the back of the head, and the other was smooth-headed, or rather smooth-occiputed ; and the young they have
H 2
omen”
[CHAP. Iv.
produced, when two have been reared, have mostly, if not always, been one “ turned ” and one smooth-pated bird, exactly as their parents. The older Ornithologists fur- nish no hint of Archangel Pigeons, that we have been able to find. A cock of this kind is now assiduously courting one of our cream-coloured Tumblers; but I am unable to describe the result of their crossing with other domestic breeds, which they doubtless will do. They are sufficiently prolific to be kept as stock birds; but they are at present too valuable, either as presents or for exchange, to be consigned to the hands of the cook. Still it is with the higher rather than the lower class of Pigeon-fanciers that they are in much request. Bigoted Tumbler-breeders and panting blowers-up of Powters will look on a pair of glowing Archangels with almost the same contemptuous glance that they would bestow on a parcel of “ Duffers,” or dovehouse Pigeons, packed up to be shot at for a wager.
Nuns are dear little creatures. The former breed belongs to the “gravel eyes,” these are pleasing in- stances of the “pearl eye,” the iris being delicately shaded from pink into white. Their colouring is vari- ous. ‘The most beautiful specimens,” says Temminck, “are those which are black, but have the quill feathers and the head white: they are called Nonnains-Maurins.” But the most usual sort, and exceedingly pretty birds they are, are what Buffon styles coquille hollandais, or Dutch shell Pigeons, “ because they have, at the back of their head, reversed feathers, which form a sort of shell. They are also of short stature. They have the head black, the tip (the whole?) of the tail and the ends of the wings (quill feathers) also black, and all the
CHAP. IV.] NUNS. 101
rest of the body white. This black-headed variety so strongly resembles the Tern (hirondelle de mer) that some persons have given it that name.”
Nun. Barb. Jacobine.
“The Nun,” says the Treatise, “ is a bird that attracts the eye greatly, from the contrast in her
102 NUNS—THEIR PECULIARITIES. [CHAP. IV.
plumage, which is very peculiar, and she seems to take her name ‘entirely from it, her head being, as it were, covered with a veil.
«Her body is all white; her head, tail, and six of her flight feathers ought to be entirely either black, red, or yellow, viz., if her head be black, her tail and flight should be black likewise; if her head be red, then her tail and flight should be red; or if her head be yellow, her tail and flight should also be yellow; and, accord- ingly, they are called either red-headed Nuns. yellow- headed Nuns, &c., and whatever feathers vary from this are said to be foul; for instance, should a black-headed Nun have a white, or any other coloured feather, in her head, except black, she would be called foul-headed ; or a white feather in her flight, she would be called foul- flighted, &c.; and the same’ rule stands good in the red-headed or yellow-headed ones; though the best of them all will sometimes throw a few foul feathers, and those that are so but in a small degree, though not so much valued in themselves, will often breed as clean- feathered birds as those that are not.
“A Nun ought likewise to have a pearl eye, with a small head and beak; and to have a white hood, or tuft of feathers on the hinder part of the head, which the larger it is, adds the more beauty to the bird.” *
In size, Nuns are somewhat less than the common dove-house Pigeons. Their flight is bold and graceful; they are very fairly prolific, and by no means bad nurses. A peculiarity in the new-hatched chicks of the
, black-headed Nuns is, that their feet are frequently, \ perhaps always, stained with dark lead colour. All
* Treatise, p. 124.
ere EITC G
?
CHAP. Iv.] JACOBINES.—‘‘ TOY” PIGEONS. 103
the Nuns are great favourites, except with those fanciers
who are devoted. to monstrous Tumblers and Powters.
A flock consisting entirely of the black-headed sort has
a very pleasing effect; but one containing individuals of |
all the procurable varieties of colour, (the arrangement of this on the birds, and their shape, being exactly similar,) would have a very charming appearance.
I have seen a half-bred Nun and Carrier in which the Nun almost entirely predominated : respective sex of the parents, unknown.
Jacopine, Ruffled Jack, Ruff, Pigeon carme, Co- lumba cucullata, and Capuchin, are names all appli- cable to the same type of bird, however bred or crossed, and all derived from some reference to ecclesiastical costume*. Where there are Nuns, it is natural to look for Friars in the neighbourhood ; and here they are, only not half so pretty, nor half so good. The Ja- cobines are about the most unproductive of our Pigeons ; they lay small eggs, which they incubate unsteadily, and, if they hatch them, nurse carelessly. It is best to transfer their eggs to some more trustworthy foster- parents. These are included among the Pigeons tech- nically called “toys;” Tumblers, Powters, and Car- riers being alone considered worthy of the serious attention of fanciers. It is really amusing to read of
_* © Jacobines, called by the Low Dutch, Cappers, because in the hinder part of the head, or nape of the neck, certain feathers re- flected upward encompass the head behind, almost after the fashion
of a Monk’s hood, when he puts it back to uncover his head. These | are called Cyprus Pigeons by Aldrovand, and there are of them |
tough-footed. Aldrovandus hath set forth three or four either
Species or accidental varieties of this kind. Their bill is short. The | Irides of their eyes of a pearl colour, and the head (as Mr. Cope `
told us) in all white.” — Willughby.
Seine. came A yp PERE
yore
104 COLUMBARIAN DISTINCTIONS. (CHAP. IV.
the superiority and importance conferred by the pos- session of a first-rate stock of Pigeons. The following quotation will show the notions entertained on the sub- ject by genteel people in 1765 :—
“It may not be amiss, before I conclude this head (The Almond T umbler), to remark a distinction which the society of Columbarians make between Pigeon- fanciers and Pigeon-keepers, viz., such gentlemen who keep good of the sort, whether they are almond, black- mottled, or yellow-mottled Tumblers, Carriers, Powters, Horsemen, Dragoons, Leghorn or Spanish Runts, Ja- cobines, Barbs, Turbits, Owls, broad-tailed Shakers, Nuns, Spots, Trumpeters, &c., are stiled fanciers; on the contrary, those who keep trash are called Pigeon- keepers, of which last denomination there are a sur- prising number. It is prodigiously amazing and un- accountable, that any gentleman will bestow food upon such as are not in reality worth the tares they devour, and can be accounted for no other way than by sup- posing such gentlemen utterly unacquainted with the true properties and perfections of the several species they entertain, which, it must be confessed, is rather a harsh supposition (except they breed for the spit only, and even then their table might be as amply supplied by the better sort), the expense of keeping either being equal in every respect, the difference arising only in the pur- chase of one pair. Should any objection be made to the expence of the first purchase of the better sort, I answer it is infinitely cheaper to bestow four or five guineas on one pair of good birds, than to begin with bad ones at eighteen-pence a pair, the value of which can never be enhanced. I hope I need not here apolo- gize, or be thought ill-natured by those gentlemen
CHAP. Iv.] JACOBINES.—DEALERS TRICKS. 105
whose fancy may differ from mine, in giving my real sentiments and opinion so freely, as I have advanced nothing but matter of fact, and what is the result of many years’ experience.” *
One feels inclined humbly to intreat this connois- seur, if he were surviving, to condescend to look in one day, and wring the necks of all one’s “trash.” There is a degree of sublimity in the idea of pigeon-pie com- posed of birds at five guineas the pair!
The same author, however, describes the points of the Jacobine so clearly, that we cannot do better than refer to him again for aid. “It has a range of feathers inverted quite over the hinder part of the head, and reaching down on each side of the neck to the shoulders of the wings, which forms a kind of hood, something like a friar’s, from whence it takes the name of Jaco- bine; the fathers of that order wearing hoods to cover their baldness. Therefore the upper part of this range of feathers is called the hood; and the more compact these feathers are, and the closer they are to the head, so much the more the bird is valued: the lower part of this range of feathers is, with us, called the chain, but the Dutch call it the cravat—the fea- thers of which should be long and close, that were you to strain the neck a little, by taking hold of the bill, the two sides should fold over each other, which may be seen in some of the best. Sometimes the pigeon-dealers cut a piece of skin out between the throat and the chest, and sew it up again, by which means the chain is drawn closer.
“ The Jacobine should have a very small head, with
* Treatise, p. 65.
as
CARICATURE.——TURBITS. [CHAP. Iv.
a quick rise, &c., and a spindle beak, the shorter the better, like that of a Tumbler, and a pearl eye. In regard to the feather, there are various coloured ones, such as reds, blues, mottled, blacks, and yellows ; the preference of which seems to be given to the last mentioned ; but whatever’ colour they are of, they should have a clean white head, with a white flight and white tail. Some of them have feathers on their legs and feet, others have none; and both sorts are equally esteemed according to the different inclinations of those who fancy them.
“ The following being in itself so uncommon, and a fact, I cannot help taking notice of it; a person the other day passing through Fleet Street, seeing a print of this bird at a shop-window, stopped to make his observations thereon, and having well viewed it, he went in and purchased it, declaring to the seller, that he never saw a stronger likeness in his life; and as for the wig, it was exactly the same he always wore. For he imagined it altogether a caricature of one of his intimate acquaintance; and the person of whom he bought it, did not think it necessary at that time to undeceive him.”
The Turpir* is the breed which the French writers have supposed to be the most isolated of the domestic races, and to have greater claims than any of hem to specific distinction. I cannot say that my
* “ Turbits, of the meaning and original of which name I must ‘confess myself to be ignorant. They have a very short thick bill, like a Bullfinch; the crown of their head is flat and depressed ; the feathers on the breast reflected both ways. They are about the bigness of the Jacodines, or a little bigger. I take these to be the „n Candy or Indian Doves of Aldrovand, the Low Dutch Cortbeke.”— \ Willughby.
CHAP. Iv.] TEMMINCK’S NOTIONS. 107
own experience or observations confirm this remark. It is just as distinct, and no more so, as the other domestic breeds. Whatever right they may be ad- judged to have to specific honours, the Turbit also has, / but no greater. $
Temminck complains of the difficulties which ama- teurs experience in making them propagate with other races supposed to be derived from the Biset; but two brown-shouldered hen Turbits in my possession have paired and bred, one with an Owl (Pigeon) the other with a Rock Dove, or Biset itself. In the former case, the young mostly resembled one the male and © the other the female parent, with a few foul feathers on each ; in the second case the young resembled the male parent, or Rock Dove, with scarcely a trace of the ma- ternal plumage. Instances sometimes occur of sterile males among Turbits ; a fact which may have led Tem- minck to suppose that these birds entertain some general aversion to the females of other breeds ; but like cases of infecundity occur with China Ganders and even with Turkey Cocks.
Buffon says of the Pigeon Cravate, or Turbit, that it is scarcely larger than a Turtle, and that by pairing them, hybrids are produced, a statement which is | quoted by Temminck. But in one very important |
point it differs from the Turtle; its time of incubation | is the same as that of other domestic Pigeons, whereas | the Collared Turtle at least hatches in a much shorter *
period.
According to the Treatise, “ This Pigeon is called * by the Dutch Cort-beke, or Short-bill, on account of the shortness of its beak; but how it came by the
OWLS. [CHAP. IV.
name of Turbit I cannot take upon me to deter- mine.
“It is a small Pigeon, something larger than the Owl; its beak is short like that of a Partridge; and the shorter it is the more it is valued; it should have a round button head, with a gullet; and the feathers on the breast (like that of the Owl) open, and reflect both ways, standing out almost like a fringe, or the frill of a shirt; and the bird is valued in proportion to the goodness of the frill or purle.
“In regard to their feather, the tail and back of the wings ought to be of one entire colour, as blue, black, dun, &c., the red and yellow ones excepted, whose tails should be white; and those that are blue should have black bars cross the wings; the flight feathers, and all the rest of the body should be white, and are called by the fanciers according to the colour they are of, ag black-shouldered, yellow-shouldered, blue-shouldered Turbits, &c. They are a very pretty light Pigeon; and if used to fly when young, some of them make very good flyers.
_ There are some Turbits all white, black and blue, | which by a mistake are often called and taken for Owls,” pp. 127-8.
And well they may be: distinction of colour is all that can be perceived by common eyes. It is said that in Owls, the feathers round the neck ought to have a certain, slight, hardly describable twist: but wishing only to describe the really typical domestic forms, I hesitate to give the Owls any paragraph to themselves.
The iris in the brown-shouldered Turbit is dark hazel surrounding a large black pupil. The attention
O
CHAP. 1V.) RAPID GROWTH OF YOUNG COLUMBIDÆ. 109
of naturalists may be directed to the similarity in the shape and air of the head in the Fantail, the Jacobin,
and the Turbit, all races with striking peculiarities of |
feather. Turbits, if the faulty members of the family are rejected, are a satisfactorily prolific race.
The results obtained from a bird of this breed, will serve as a special instance of the rapid rate of increase of the young among the Columbide in general.
On the 27th of June, 1849, a male blue Owl that had mated with a female black-headed Nun,