PIGEONS
The pigeon is the only species of aerial bird kept in domestication to
provide food for man. It is also the only useful domestic bird that is
able to maintain itself and increase in numbers in populous districts
without the care of man.
=Description.= The common pigeon is about the size of the smallest
bantam fowls. It is a plump, hard-feathered bird, with a short neck, a
round head free from ornamental appendages, a short beak, and short
legs. The prevailing color is a dull, checkered blue, varying in shade
from a very light blue to nearly black. The blue is sometimes replaced
by red with similar variations in shade. There are also white pigeons,
black pigeons, and many birds in which all the colors that have been
named are irregularly mixed.
The male and female pigeons are not distinguished by any regular
differences of size, form, color, or voice. The males are usually a
little larger and coarser looking, and make themselves conspicuous by
their vain posing and domineering ways, but none of these
characteristics are reliable indications of sex. The natural voice of
the pigeon is a soft, gurgling coo repeated over and over with
monotonous effect. It is sometimes heavier and more prolonged in the
male, but except in the Trumpeter and Laugher Pigeons, in which the
voice has been peculiarly developed, the difference in the voices of the
male and female is not marked. Even in the two varieties mentioned, many
males have such poor voices that the voice is not an infallible
indication of the sex. The most expert pigeon breeders are often in
doubt about the sex of some pigeons until they pair.
The name "pigeon" is from the Latin _pipio_ (to peep or chirp), and
came into the English language from the French. The Anglo-Saxon name for
the bird was probably _dufa_, from which we have the word "dove," which
is still sometimes applied to pigeons. _Dufa_ was derived from _dufan_
(to plunge into). It seems probable that the name was given because of
the pigeon's habit of dropping almost perpendicularly when descending
from an elevated position. The male pigeon is called a cock, the female
a hen. Young pigeons are called _squabs_, _squeakers_, or sometimes
_squealers_. The word "squab," which means "fat," describes the
characteristic appearance of the nestling pigeon; the other terms refer
to the noise it makes as it persistently begs for food.
[Illustration: Fig. 183. Tame pigeons. (Photograph from Elmer E. Rice,
Boston, Massachusetts)]
=Origin.= Domestic pigeons are all descended from the wild Blue Rock
Pigeon of the Old World. Although many of the improved varieties have
been greatly changed in form, they are all perfectly fertile when bred
together. The Blue Rock Pigeon is found in the wild state in Europe,
Asia, and Africa. "Fancy Pigeons," by James C. Lyell, the best authority
on the subject, contains this statement: "The British Blue Rock inhabits
the rocks and caves on our seacoasts, as well as precipitous inland
rocks, and certainly the difference between this bird and a common blue
flying tumbler is very little. Their color is identical, their size
almost so.... In the west of Scotland, where fanciers keep and show
common pigeons, the wild Blue Rock domesticated is the bird so called."
It is by no means certain that these wild pigeons are a true wild race.
Considering the habits of the pigeon and its wide distribution in
England centuries ago, it seems certain that many, if not all, of the
pigeons now found wild in the British Isles are descended from birds
once domesticated. Rock Pigeons of the same type, however, are found in
many other parts of the Old World and, whether wild or feral, are
plainly all from the same original stock. The American Wild Pigeon, also
called the Passenger Pigeon, which was once found in enormous flocks in
eastern North America, is often erroneously mentioned as the ancestor of
domestic pigeons. The Rock Pigeon and the Passenger Pigeon are of
different species and are very different in appearance and habits. The
Rock Pigeon is what is called a shelf builder. It builds its nest on a
ledge, or shelf, and will rarely even alight in a tree or a bush. The
Passenger Pigeon is a wood pigeon, nesting and roosting in trees.
[Illustration: Fig. 184. Flock of Dragoon Pigeons[15]]
[Illustration: Fig. 185. Flying Homer Pigeon[15]]
[Illustration: Fig. 186. Silver Runt Pigeon[15]]
[15] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
=Distribution in ancient times.= The pigeon was domesticated at a very
early stage of civilization. Like the fowl, the duck, and the goose, it
was well known to all civilized peoples of antiquity. To what extent the
distribution of pigeons in domestication followed the early migrations
of the human race is not known. It is probable that pigeons were
domesticated before the Aryan migrations began, and also that the
domestic stock was sometimes taken by Aryan colonists to their new
homes; but it is equally probable that at various times in the history
of the earth people coming to new lands domesticated some of the wild
rock pigeons which they found there.
[Illustration: Fig. 187. Swiss Mondaine Pigeon[16]]
[Illustration: Fig. 188. Splashed Homer[16]]
[Illustration: Fig. 189. Blue-barred Homer[16]]
[16] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
=Improved varieties.= Common pigeons are much alike the world over, and
have changed little from the wild race, but in many different parts of
the Old World the making of improved varieties began thousands of years
ago, and in some places peculiar types were developed which were little
known elsewhere until modern times. The varieties of the pigeon are so
numerous that it is practically impossible to make a complete list of
them. At the large shows in this country, classes are made for more than
one hundred fifty named varieties, in about forty breeds. In many of
these breeds there are eight or ten principal color varieties, and an
indefinite number of less popular varieties, specimens of which compete
in a miscellaneous competition in what is called the "any other variety
class." There are probably nearly three hundred varieties of pigeons
bred in America and England. On the continent of Europe the number is
very much greater. The Triganica pigeon has one hundred fifty-two color
varieties, and it is said that another variety in Germany, not known in
England and America, has one hundred thirty-eight color varieties. Where
varieties are so numerous, many of the color differences are necessarily
slight, and only those who know them well can readily distinguish the
different varieties at sight; others are bewildered when they attempt to
do so. In this chapter only the most pronounced color varieties and the
breeds of most interest to beginners will be described, but some of the
most interesting of the others will be mentioned, to illustrate the
range of the improved types developed by fanciers.
[Illustration: Fig. 190. White Hen Pigeons. (Photograph from Elmer E.
Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)]
[Illustration: Fig. 191. Young Jacobin Pigeons. (Photograph from E. R.
B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts)]
=The Carrier Pigeon.= The homing instinct--that is, the faculty of
finding the way home after wandering or being taken away from it--is
found in animals of all kinds. In some kinds of animals it is much more
highly developed than in others, and some animals of each kind have more
of it than is usual with their species. It is well known that migratory
birds usually return to the same localities season after season, and
that certain pairs often return to the same vicinity year after year and
build their nests in the same places. When this instinct is highly
developed in a wild bird, its habit of returning to the same nest is of
great interest to those who observe it, but it has no particular value.
In a domestic bird the homing instinct or habit is of service because
the owner of a bird relies upon it to make the bird return always to the
place which he has provided for it, instead of taking shelter elsewhere
or remaining where nocturnal enemies will find it an easy prey. In the
domestic land birds the instinct has no further use than this, but in
pigeons which, while thoroughly domesticated, retain full power of
flight, the development of the homing faculty makes it possible to use
them as a means of communication when it is necessary to transmit short
letters with great dispatch.
[Illustration: Fig. 192. Muffed Tumblers with "saddle" color pattern.
(Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts)]
It is known that pigeons were used as messengers in war about the
beginning of the Christian Era. An Egyptian bas-relief of about 1350
B.C. shows pigeons being released from cages just as they are now
released in flying matches. The homing instinct is so strong in the
common pigeon that any one familiar with its habits may easily suppose
that pigeons were used to carry messages almost as soon as men had
devised means of communication by writing upon any material which the
birds could carry in their flight. There is reason to believe that in
very ancient times pigeons were bred and trained especially for work of
this kind in Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
[Illustration: Fig. 193. Feeding pigeons on Boston Common. (Photograph
from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)]
The pigeon which in England and America now goes by the name of "Carrier
Pigeon" is a type developed as a messenger pigeon in Persia and from
that country distributed to many parts of the world. As bred in Asia it
was larger and stronger than the common pigeon, and had a cere, or
convoluted membrane, around each eye and at the juncture of the head and
the beak. It is thought that this type of Carrier may have been taken
from Asia Minor to England at the time of the Crusades, but nothing
definite is known of it in Great Britain until the seventeenth century.
This old type of Carrier and several closely related varieties were used
for messengers, and also in flying competitions, until the variety next
described was developed. When the Carrier Pigeon was bred for carrying
messages, no attention was paid to its color. Pigeon fanciers who were
not interested in pigeon flying, but liked the Carrier for its other
characters, early developed many distinct color varieties and also gave
special attention to the form and carriage of the bird and to the
development of the ceres around the eyes and on the beak. The Carrier
Pigeon is now bred only as an exhibition bird.
=The Antwerp Homer.= Beginning sometime early in the last century,
breeders of flying pigeons at Antwerp, in Belgium, developed a race
which soon became celebrated for superior development of the homing
faculty and for great speed and endurance. This race was at first called
the Antwerp Carrier. When the invention of the telegraph made the
services of pigeons as messengers on land unnecessary, pigeons that
could fly long distances were still bred and trained for competitive
flying matches. In these, as a rule, they carried no messages; the
object was to see which bird would reach home first. So gradually the
term "homer" was substituted for "carrier," and the pigeons now called
Homers, or Homing Pigeons, are the Antwerp Homing Pigeons. Good birds of
this type are larger and stronger than the common pigeon, and have a
bolder, more confident bearing and a more attractive carriage. They show
their good breeding very plainly. Many of the pigeons called Homers are
crosses or grades of the Antwerp Homer, and are not much better in any
way than ordinary pigeons.
[Illustration: Fig. 194. Flying Homer[17]]
[17] Photograph from C. E. Twombley, Medford, Massachusetts.
The true Homer is also the most popular type of pigeon for the
production of squabs for market. Its great prolificacy, strong
constitution, quick growth, and large size make it a favorite with squab
growers. As bred for flying or for market, Homers are of various colors,
and the color varieties are not distinct except as occasionally a
breeder makes a specialty of producing birds of some particular color.
Many pigeon fanciers breed Homers solely for exhibition. The Exhibition
Homer has many distinct color varieties--Blue, Silver, Mealy, Blue
Checker, Black Checker, Black, Red Checker, White, Yellow.
=Tumbler and Tippler Pigeons.= The flying powers of pigeons have been
developed for other purposes as well as for traveling long distances. In
rising or descending in flight a pigeon sometimes turns a somersault in
the air. This trait has been developed in certain races so that many
birds will perform the feat very often. These races are called Tumblers.
They are found all over Europe and Asia and in a few localities in
America. The common Tumblers perform in the air, usually at some
distance from the ground, the tumbling of individual birds being an
occasional feature of the evolutions of a flock circling about in the
vicinity of its home. From this common Tumbler more highly specialized
types have been developed. The breeding of these types has become
something of an art, and in some cases the sport of flying them has
become a well-organized recreation.
[Illustration: Fig. 195. Squab-breeding Homers. (Photograph from Elmer
E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)]
By breeding together specimens which performed well when flying,
Tumblers were finally produced in which the tumbling propensity was so
exaggerated that they could not fly but, after a few somersaults,
alighted on their feet. These birds were called Inside Tumblers, or
Parlor Tumblers, to distinguish them from the common Tumblers, which
required more room for their evolutions than any ordinary building
afforded. Although they are incapable of flight, the Parlor Tumblers can
rise a short distance before they fall. The Roller is a Tumbler which
turns many somersaults so rapidly that each revolution of its body is
made in a very small space. A high-flying Roller falls while rolling in
the air. An Inside Roller turns over and over backward on the ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 196. Clean-legged Red Tumbler[18]]
[Illustration: Fig. 197. Muffed, or Feather-legged, Tumblers[18]]
[18] Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts.
Breeders of common Tumblers do not give them liberty, but release them
from their loft only when they wish to see the birds perform, and, by
feeding them immediately upon their return, coax and train them to
return to the loft soon after being released. A good performer is soon
exhausted by tumbling, and is quite willing to return to the loft in a
short time. But not all birds of Tumbler stock are good and persistent
performers, and often birds that do not perform prefer liberty for a
longer period to the food that is waiting for them in the loft. Birds
have sometimes been compelled to remain in the air for a long time. As a
result of this treatment of poor Tumblers a type of Tumbler has been
produced which will perform more or less when ascending or descending,
but which, having risen to a high elevation, will remain for hours
circling over its home and perhaps occasionally flying away and
returning. Tumblers of this type can remain in the air for five or six
hours. In flying them for sport the object is to see which flock will
remain in the air longest. The tumbling habit was gradually bred out of
the high-flying birds, and after a time many of them did not tumble at
all. Such birds were then called Tipplers ("tipple" having in some
English dialects the meaning of "tumble"). The modern Tippler Pigeon is
a bird in which the tendency to rise to a great height and remain there
for a long time has been developed to the utmost, as the tendency to
return home from great distances has been developed in the Flying Homer.
Performing Tumblers and Tipplers are usually bred for performance
without regard to color, and the colors in a flock of the same breeding
may be, and nearly always are, various. Exhibition stocks of Tumblers
and Tipplers are bred in many distinct color varieties.
[Illustration: Fig. 198. English Owl Pigeon[19]]
[Illustration: Fig. 199. English Red Trumpeter Pigeon[19]]
[Illustration: Fig. 200. English Saddle Trumpeter Pigeon[19]]
[19] Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts.
=The Fantail Pigeon.= The Fantail Pigeon originated in India. The
fan-shaped tail, from which this variety takes its name, was developed
by selection to increase the number of the large, straight main tail
feathers. Normally a pigeon has from twelve to sixteen of these
feathers; in the ordinary Fantail the number has been increased to
twenty-four or twenty-six. Many of the specimens in which this
character is highly developed have a much greater number of tail
feathers. It is said that forty-two feathers have been counted in a
tail. A tail in which there are so many feathers cannot be carried in
the natural position; it spreads, forming a major segment of a circle,
and at the same time it is elevated until, in specimens with very full
tails, the highest tail feathers stand nearly perpendicular. To balance
the large tail carried in this position the Fantail has to carry its
head very far back. This makes the breast very prominent. The bird
cannot fly well, and when walking about it appears to be strutting to
make a display of its spectacular tail. Its appearance is in this
respect deceptive, for it is a very modest bird and has difficulty in
balancing itself in any other position. The Fantail is gentle and
affectionate, and is the best of all pigeons for those who want birds
for pets. It is bred in many color varieties. The White Fantail is the
most popular, because it is the most showy and the easiest to produce
with uniform color in a flock.
[Illustration: Fig. 201. White Runt Pigeon[20]]
[20] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
[Illustration: Fig. 202. White Pouter Pigeon]
=Pouter Pigeons.= All pigeons have in some measure the power of
inflating the crop with air. In the Pouter Pigeons this power has been
developed and its exercise encouraged to such an extent that in many
specimens the inflated crop is as large as all the rest of the bird.
Pouters were introduced into England from Holland several hundred years
ago. They were at first called Croppers. The common Pouter is a large
pigeon with long legs. It usually stands in a very erect position.
There is a race of dwarf pigeons of this type, called Pigmy Pouters.
[Illustration: Fig. 203. Fowl-like, or Maltese Hen, Pigeons[21]]
[21] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
=Other important types.= One of the most attractive pigeons is the
Jacobin, which has the feathers of the neck turned upward, forming a
hood which sometimes almost conceals the head. The Turbit and Owl
Pigeons are distinguished by a frill of feathers on the breast, and by
the peculiar beak and face, which are very short. The Dragoon is a
large, showy pigeon of the Carrier type. The Trumpeter is distinguished
by a crest, which greatly obstructs its sight, as well as by the
peculiar development of the voice, to which it owes its name. The Runt
is a very large pigeon bred both for exhibition and for the table. Some
squab growers prize it very highly; others say that the smaller and more
prolific Homer is more profitable for squab breeding. The use of a term
commonly applied to undersized, ill-developed creatures as the name of
one of the largest pigeons is one of the curiosities of nomenclature.
The explanation, however, is simple. In England in old times common
pigeons were called runts. The pigeon now called the Runt was introduced
into England from Spain, and was called by early writers on pigeons the
Spanish Runt, meaning the common pigeon of Spain. With the disuse of the
term "runt" to designate the common pigeon, the term "Spanish" was
dropped from the designation of the improved breed, and it became simply
the Runt. Besides the Runt just mentioned there is another large pigeon,
once called the Leghorn Runt, which belongs to the class of Fowl-like,
or Hen, Pigeons, so called because in shape they are strikingly like
fowls. The most familiar representative of this class is the Maltese
Hen Pigeon.
=History in domestication.= The history of the pigeon in domestication
presents some very interesting features. Its use as a messenger has been
mentioned. From very early times people of privileged classes took
advantage of the habits of the pigeon to grow the birds for their own
use at the expense of the community. The Assyrians and some other
ancient peoples considered the pigeon sacred to certain of their
deities. Sometimes all pigeons were so regarded; at other times and
places only white pigeons were sacred, those of other colors being used
by the common people.
[Illustration: Fig. 204. Nun Pigeons[22]]
[Illustration: Fig. 205. German Frillback Pigeons[22]]
[22] Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts.
In medieval times in England, the lord of a manor, when leasing farms to
tenants, reserved the right to let his pigeons forage over them. As
pigeons live mostly upon grains and seeds, caring little for green
vegetation and insects, the newly planted fields of the farmer were the
favorite feeding places of his landlord's pigeons. The landlords, being
able to keep pigeons without other expense than that of providing
shelter for them, built large dovecots near the manor houses and kept
their tables plentifully supplied with pigeons. At one time it was
estimated that there were more than twenty thousand such dovecots in
England. The destruction of crops by the occupants of these caused
serious losses to the farmers and a great deal of trouble between them
and their landlords. This form of protection for roving pigeons in
agricultural districts was finally abandoned.
No doubt the selfishness of landlords was originally responsible for
this method of protecting pigeons, but the government of the country at
that time also had something to do with it. Pigeon manure is very rich
in niter, which in those days the government had difficulty in procuring
in such quantities as it needed for the manufacture of gunpowder; so it
adopted the policy of regulating the construction of pigeon houses,
prescribing the method of disposing of the droppings to conserve the
niter in them and appointing official inspectors to see that its
regulations were observed, and collectors to gather the pigeon manure.
It was much easier to do this when large flocks were kept by landlords
than when an equal number of the birds were kept in small flocks by the
tenants.
=Place in domestication.= Although many farmers keep small flocks of
pigeons, the pigeon in modern times is a city bird rather than a country
bird. The strong flying types are all well adapted to an independent
life in towns and cities, where, as has been stated, they often become a
nuisance. This form of nuisance might be partly abated and perhaps
prevented if city authorities would systematically and humanely
exterminate the free flocks of common pigeons, and encourage citizens to
breed improved varieties under proper control.
Pigeon culture does not afford as many or as good opportunities for
profit as poultry culture does, but it is suited to conditions under
which poultry do not thrive. A flock of pigeons may be permanently
maintained by a city resident who has so little room for domestic birds
that, if he kept poultry, he would have to renew his flock every year. A
few pigeons may be kept by any one who can provide a nesting place for
them where they will be safe from cats and rats. In this country the
growing of squabs has been widely exploited in recent years as a
profitable commercial industry. Near large cities where the demand for
squabs is good, squab growing on a large scale is sometimes successful.
Elsewhere the small flock that can be cared for in the owner's spare
time is likely to be more profitable.
The breeding of fancy pigeons is also almost wholly a spare-time
occupation. The demand for fancy pigeons is small in comparison with the
demand for fancy poultry, and a pigeon fancier's trade rarely grows so
large that he can give his attention to it exclusively. In Europe the
breeding of pigeons for exhibition and sport is more popular than in
America, but the interest is growing rapidly in this country.