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Show 182 DOMESTIC PIGEONS. CHAP. VI. country often perches and roosts on trees,6 and our domesticated musk-ducks, though such sluggish bi1·ds, "are fond of perching on the tops of barns, walls, &c., and, if allowed to spend the night in the hen-house, the female will generally go to roost by the side of the hens, but the· drake is too heavy to mount thither with casc." 6 We know that tho dog, however wcJl and regularly fed, often buries, like the fox, any superfluous food; and we sec him turning round and round on a carpet, as if to trample down grass to form a bed; we see him on bare pavements scratching backwards as if to throw earth over his excrement, although, as I believe, this is never effi ctcd even where there is earth. In the delight with which lamb and kids crowd together and fri k on the smallest hillock, we see a vestige of their former alpine habits. W o have therefore good reason to believe that all the domestic race of the pigeon arc descended either from some one or from several species which both roosted and built their nests on rocks, and were social in disposition. As only five or six wild species with these habits and making any ncar approach in structure to the domesticated pigeon arc lmovm to exist, I will enumerate them. Fil:stly, tho Columba leuconota resembles certain domestic varieties in its plumage, with the one marked and never-failing difference of a white ban~ which crosse~ tho .tail at some distance from the extremity. This specws, moreov01> mh~bits the Himalaya, clo ·c to tho limit .of perpetual snow; and therefore, as Mr. J3Iyth has remarked, is not likely to have been tho parent of our domestic broods, which thrive in tho hottest countries. Secondly, th~ C. rupestris, of Central Asia, which is intermcdiatc7 between tho C. letteonota and Uvia ; but has nearly the same coloured tail with tho former s~ecies. Thirdly: the Columba littomlis builds and roosts, according to Tmn~1mck, ~n rocks m th~ Malayan archipelago; it is white, excepting ~a:ts of tho wmg an~ ~ho tip of tho tail, which arc black; its logs are li:'Id-coloUl'ed, and this IS a character not observed in any adult domestic p1goon; but I need not have mentioned this species or tho closely-allied U. luctuosa, ~s they .in fact belong to tho genus Cru·pophaga. Fourthly, Columba Gu~nea, which ranges from Guineas to tho Cape of Good Hope, ~ Sir R. Schorn burgk, in 'J ournnl R. Gcograpb. Soc.,' vol. xiii., 1844, p. 32. 6 Rev. E. S. Dixon, 'Ornamental Poultry,' 1848, pp. G3, 66. 7 Pl'Oc. Zoolog. Soc., 1859, p. 400. s Temminck, 'Hist. Nat. Gen. des Pigeons,' tom. i.; also 'Los Pigeons,' par Mad. Knip and 'l'emminck. Bonaparte however, in his 'Coup-d'roil,' believes that two closely allied species are confounded together under this name. CHAP. VI. ~HEIR PARENTAGE. 183 and roosts either on trees or rocks, according to the nature of the country. This species belongs to the genus Strictomas of Rciche~bach, b~t is closel.y allied to true Columba; it is to some extent coloured like cortam domestiC races, and ha.'3 been said to be domesticated in Abyssinia ; but Mr. Mansfield ParJcyns, who collected tho birds of that country and kno':s t~o species, informs me that this is a mistake. Moreover the 0 . Gu~nea IS characterized. by tho feathers of tho neck having peculia!' notched t1ps,-a chanwtcr not ob."crved in any domestic mcc. Fifthly, the Columba oonas of Europe, which Toosts on trees, and builas its nest in holes, citho~ in trees or tho ground.; this species, as far as external chaTactors go, IDJght be the parent of several domestic races; but, though it cro sos readily with tho true rock-pigeon, tho offspring, as we shall presently soc, arc sterile hybrids, and. of such sterility there is not a trace when the domestic race.' are intorcrosscd. It should al. o bo observed that if we WCTO to admit, agamst all probability, that any of tho foregoing five or six species were the parents of some of our domestic pigeons, not the least bght would be thrown on the chief differences between the eleven most strongly-marked. races. We now come to the best known rock-pigeon, the Columba livia, which is often designn.tcd in EUl'ope pre-eminently as the Rock-pigeon, and which natmalists believe to be the parent of all the domesticated breeds. This bird agrees in every essential chn.mcter with the breeds which have been only slightly modified. It differs from all otheT species in being of a slaty-blue colom, with two black bars on the wings, and. with the croup (or loins) white. Occasionally birds arc seen in .Faroe and tho Ilobridcs with the black bars replaced by two or three black spots ; this form has been named by Brehm 9 C. amalice, but this species has not been admitted as distinct by other ornithologists. Graba 10 oven found a difference between the wing-bars of tho same bird in Faroe. Another and rather more distinct form is either truly wild or has become feral on the cliffs of England, and was doubtfully named by Mr. Blyth 11 as C. affinis, but is now no longer considered. by him as a distinct species. C. uflinis is rather smaller than the Took-pigeon of the Scottish islands, and has a very different appearance owing to the wing-coverts being chequcred with black, with similar marks often extending oveT the back. The chcquering consists of a large black spot on tho two sides, but chiefly on the outer side, of each feather. The wing-bars in the true rock-pigeon and in the chequerod variety arc, jn fact, due to similar though larger spots symmetrically crossing the secondary wing-feather and the larger coverts. Hence the chcquoring arises merely from an extcllSion of these marks to other parts of the plumage. Chcqucrod birds arc not confined to the coasts of England; for The O.leucocephala of the West Indies is stated by 'fcmminck to be a rock-pigeon; but I am informed by Mr. Gosse that this is an error. 9 ' Handbuch der N aturgesch. Vogel Deutschlands.' IO ' Tagebuch Reise nach Fiiro,' 1830, s. 62. u 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' vol: xix., 1847, p. 102. This excellent paper on pigeons is well worth consulting. |