Page:Pigeons - their structure, varieties, habits, and management (IA b28107901).pdf/15



HE structure and habits of the family or group of pigeons are so peculiar and go strikingly distinct from those of any other birds, that they demand special attention. The pigeons were formerly classed by the majority of naturalists along with the gallinaceous birds, the true poultry, and by others with the passerine or sparrow-like birds; but more accurate observation has rendered evident the fact that they form a perfectly distinct family, distinguished from all other birds by the singnlar manner in which their young are nourished. Unlike the true gallinaceæ—which are hatched in a very perfect state and able to follow the parent hen within a few hours after birth—the young pigeons are born in a most immature and helpless condition, and are fed with a curdy secretion, produced in the crops of the parents, the "soft food" of the pigeon-fancier. This is expressly produced at the period of hatching, for the support of the callow young.

The following account of the formation of these birds applies more particularly to the European species known as constituting the genus Columba, and has special reference to the wild Blue Rock dove. Columba livia, the undoubted origin of all our numerous domestic varieties.

Pigeons are usually birds of moderate size; their legs and feet are small compared with those of the gallinaceous birds, that scratch the earth in seeking for their food—a habit that is never followed by the doves.

Although slight in size, the legs and feet are very efficient organa of motion, the birds being able to walk with considerable rapidity when traversing the ground in search of food. The limbs are moved alternately, the pigeons never, when seeking food, leaping with both feet together, like the sparrow and other birds of the same group, although, when advancing to his mate, the cock pigeon often makes a kind of imperfect leap.