The dovecote and the aviary : being sketches of the natural history of pigeons and other domestic birds in a captive state
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' H • 'Shy 4m £md?m ."Wise Er SK* irnKSSS' } ® / ■Sf-gSC Wu IHTawi #*4Pwfc F ,T v i? jgjgmkl AT JN %f r* r ■'■3£r&'m s y ?*> /«: 'v\r( cC^^-Wv! r Zwr E f anci FBftVx. 2»^ IFfr Y'jfc ,W fc'Wfv'C |Lmt> ~b (o<? - 3 3 to 9 - 3 CP^)C2 ■ ^ J ISO - THE DOVECOTE AND THE AVIARY. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of Toronto https://archive.org/details/dovecoteaviarybe00dixo_0 Archangel. Tumbler. Carrier. Powtcr GROUP OF DOMESTIC PIGEONS T H E DOVE C 0 T E AND T 11 E A Y I A R Y : 15 KING 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.” LONDON : \Vm. S. ORR & CO , AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW. TO THE EAEL 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 he urged against the theoretical views he has ventured to state ; hut 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 guessed 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, Norwich, 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 Columbidse. — Earliest history. — The olive branch. — Arab legend. — Ancient domestication. — Feral Pigeons. — Domestic Pigeons long established in America. — Not found among the Egyptian monuments. — Ancient pigeon-fanciers. — Messenger birds. — Agents of superstition. — Misrepresentation. — Use during sieges. — 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 ....... 1 CHAPTER II. MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS. Feed their own young. — New-hatched squabs. — The pigeon-loft. — The trap. — Nesting-places. — Food and luxuries. — Water-sup¬ ply. — Out-door pigeon-houses. — Pole-house. — Dovecotes. — Pigeon law. — Yarro’s dovecote. — Stocking the loft. — Commence¬ ment 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 .... ..... 34 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. CLASSIFICATION OF PIGEONS. rAGE 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 . 70 CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC PIGEONS. Fantails; 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. — Peculiarities of Runts: — Runts in Italy. — Effects of crossing. — Trumpeters. — Archangel Pigeons. — 'Nuns. — Jacobines. — Columbarian distinctions. — Sup¬ posed caricature. — Turbits. — Temminck’s ideas. — Owls. — Pro¬ gress of the young. — Rapid growth. — Barbs. — Tumblers. — Their performance in the air. — Feats of wing. — The Almond. — Pecu¬ liarity of form. — 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 Columbidae. — Quarrels and attachments. — Mating. — Love of home. — Food. — Merits of the Runts. — Etymology of the Trumpeter . . 86 CHAPTER V. PIGEONS WHICH ARE BOTH DOMESTIC AND WILD. The Blue Rock Dove. — Yarro’s account. — Distinguished from Dovehouse Pigeons. — Disposition. — Experiment. — Gregarious¬ ness.' — Crossing with Carriers. — Less kept than formerly. — Mari- CONTENTS. IX PAGK 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. Bly th’s account. — Columba affinis. — Question of distinctness. — Pigeon matches. — Apology. — Numbers shot. — Pigeon-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 . . 150 CHAPTER VI. PIGEONS NOT CAPABLE OF TRUE DOMESTICATION. The Stockdove. — Natural instincts. — 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. — Harlequin Bronze-wing First discovery. — Food and habits. — Their doings at Knowsley. — Graceful Ground Dove — Minute birds and beasts of Australia _ Mr. Gould’s account. — Crested Australian Pigeons. — Their breeding at Knowsley — Habits in captivity. — The Passenger Pigeon. — Disposition. — Escaped birds. — The Long-tailed Senegal Dove. —  CRACID.E— CURASSOWS. 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 Cracidae. — Former attempts. — Natural dis¬ position of the bird. — Imported long ago. — Ill success at the Zoological Gardens. — The Cracidae at Knowsley. — Arboreal habits. — Of tender constitution _ Curassows at home _ Tame, not domesticated. — Not common in S. America. — M. Ameshoff’s festin cV Heliogabale. — Eggs ....... 223 CHAPTER II. THE CRACIDiE — PENELOPES (COMMONLY GTLANs). Difficulty of discriminating the species. — State in which the young are hatched. — Easily tamed. — Produce few young in a tame state. — Mode of distinguishing species. — Organ of voice. — Its efficiency. — The Cracidae as poultry. — Mr. Bennett’s and Mr. Martin’s hopes. — Cause of failure. — Have had a fair trial. — Curassow dinner. — Cracidae 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 CRESTED TURKEY. PAGE Imaginary 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 IY. 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 breeders .......... 280 CHAPTER V. KINGFISHERS. Halcyon of the ancients ; what 1 — Aldrovandi’s figures and de¬ scriptions. — Nest of Halcyon. — Haunts and habits of the King¬ fisher. — 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 Heron. — Unsociability of Kingfishers. — Management in a cap¬ tive state. — African Kinghunters. — Australian Kingfishers. — The Laughing Jackasses ....... 297 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. 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  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 .... 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-denial of the abori¬ gines. — Duty of the present Australians to preserve the Emeu. CONTENTS. Xlll • — Ease with which it may be stalked. — Proposed Emeu parks. • — Little hope for future Emeus. — The refuge of domestication. — Dinornithes, or Wonder Birds. — Their discovery and history.' — Adaptation of the various species to their locality in New Zea¬ land. — Their great variety. — Their recent existence. — How con¬ gregated in New Zealand. — Professor Owen's conjecture. — Any hope that they still survive 1 — A few glimpses of evidence. — The latest 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 . 352 CHAPTER X. THE COMMON OR DACTTL-SOTJNDING 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. — Do not universally migrate. — Welcome feasts afforded by their flight. — Quails in captivity. — Their fate in an aviary. — Distinc¬ tion between Quails and Partridges. — Unvarying plumage throughout the Old World. — Whether potygamous. — Careless of their young. — Their double moult. — Breeding in confinement. — Diet. — Subject to epilepsy. — Estimation as food. — Modes of cooking and of fatting. — Quail fights. — Distinction of sex. — Pick-werwick. — Quails in process of fatting. — Necessaries of CHAPTER XI. THE ORTOLAN. The fatting of wild birds largely practised by the ancients. — Good old-fashioned fare. — Mock and true Ortolans. — Not native Britons. — Merits as cage birds. — Their song, plumage, and diet. — Variable states of fatness. — Effects of revolutions. — Beau Tibbs and his Ortolan . 394 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. GULLS IN CAPTIVITY, AND GULLERIES. PAGE 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 . . . 402 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 ....... . 426 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 mrd. Antique notions. — Effects of a Nightingale diet. — Enter Bird- catcher. — Rural simplicity. — Diamond cut diamond. — The bird is caught. — Amount of its accomplishments.  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 Columbidse. — Earliest history.— The olive branch. — Arab legend. — Ancient domestication. — Feral pigeons. — Domestic 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. — Cato a pigeon-fatter.— The Mosaic doves of the Capitol. — Friendship of the kestrel.— Charms for dovecotes.— Effectual attractions.— Patronized by commercial people. What a wide gulpli separates the Pigeons from all our other captive or domestic birds ! How completely discrepant are all their modes of increase 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. These walk the ground, those glide on air ; these lazily gorge and fatten at home, those traverse whole dis¬ tricts and cross wide seas to obtain an independent supply of nutriment. The Gallinacece are sensual and tyrannical ; though gallant and chivalrous, yet they are faithless ; they are pugnacious, even murderous ; and life-destroyers for the gratification of their appetite merely. The Columbidce are amorous, beseeching, full of affectionate attachment, quarrelling solely in defence of their mates or their young, content to subsist on fruits B c b s 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 CHAP. I.J BOY PIGEON-KEEPERS. r-v to afford ? Well do we remember our first two pigeon- houses, of widely-diverse construction ; the earliest effort of 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 internally into apartments, each of some cubic inches capacity, and each with a little landing-place project¬ ing 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 fixing this lofty structure firm and upright in its site in the back-yard ! How the man dug an awful hole in the 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 lived 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¬ ration — and when at last the short ladder was brought wherewith to ascend, which we did without delay, and inspect the lockers, Smeaton, gazing from the top of the Eddystone Lighthouse, or Stephenson darting on a locomotive engine through the Menai Tube, might enjoy a pride higher in degree, but not stronger in intenseness ! 4 BOY PIGEON -KEEPERS. [chap. r. 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 “ Duffer ” 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 CHAP. I.J PARADOXICAL INCREASE. 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 in 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¬ tiply 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 inhabitants 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 * “ My friend Dr. Bachman says, in a note sent to me, ‘ In the more cultivated parts of the United States, the Passenger Pigeon no longer breeds in communities. I have secured many nests scattered throughout the woods, seldom near each other. They were built close to the stems of thin but tall pine trees ( Pinus strobus), and were composed of a few sticks ; the eggs invariably two, and white.’ There is frequently but one young bird in the nest, probably from the loose manner in which it has been constructed, so that either a young bird or an egg drops out. Indeed, I have found both at the foot of the tree. This is no doubt accidental, and not to be attri¬ buted to a habit which the bird may be supposed to have of throw- ft CAPTIVE BIRDS SOMETIMES LESS PROLIFIC, [chap. 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 Earl 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. I have heard of other like cases of Canaries producing a solitary egg and young one. CHAP. I.] BEAUTY OF THE COLUMBIA. 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 numerous 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 rapidly-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 w7hen 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 Deity alone do works of supererogation belong: He gives what is needful with a paternal liberality, and then is lavish of his bounty, and bestows ornament and 8 BEAUTY OF THE COLUMBHEE. [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 CHAP. I.J 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 to 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 viii. 6-12. TO ' 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 Columbae specie quae in Baptismo Christi apparuit.” CHAP. I.J 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 red 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, ‘ admeli,’ earth, and ‘ Adm,’ Adam, is remarkable. A ‘ man’ is still called ‘ A'dam in Turkish. ”f 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 in 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 * “ Paciferaeque manu ramum praetendit olivae.” — Yirg.Aln.viii.il 8. “ * Resolve me, strangers, whence, and what you are ; Your business here; and bring you peace or war?’ High on the stern Aeneas took his stand, And held a branch of olive in his hand, While thus he spoke — ” f Sir J. Gr. Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. pp. 401, 2. 12 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-Doves are thus spoken of, as equivalent to Pigeons, and as if always obtainable, shows plainly, I think, that the for- CHAP. I.] ANCIENT DOMESTICATION. 13 mer bird was not the common wild Turtle, which to this day continues to he 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. It 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¬ cupied 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 thev 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 rpanifested. Some of the details of Captain Mundy’s description 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 the 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. X.] 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.” 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. ] 6 NOT FOUND IN EGYPTIAN PAINTINGS. [chap. 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 Bock Dovehouse Pigeon. 