Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/25

* PIFFERABI. 11 PIGEON. pairs, an old man with pointed hat. cloak, san- dals, and bagpipe, accompanied by a boy clothed in a skin and carrying the pipe. PIG. See Hog; Swine. PIGAFETTA, pe'ga-fet'ta, (Fbaxcesco) Ax- TO.Nio (1401-c.lo34). An Italian traveler and historian, born at Vicenza. His first journey was to Spain, where he obtained leave to go on the JIagellan expedition (1.719-22), and Piga- fetta's was the chief account of the voyage. It was printed in French and Italian at Milan (1800), and a later edition came out in Rome under the title Relazione iniorno a! prima viaggio di oircximnaiigazione. Notizie del Hondo Xuovo con Ic figure de' paesi scoperti (1894). PIGALIiE, ps'gal', -Jean Baptiste (1714-85). A French sculptor, boin in Paris. He was a pupil of Robert le Lorrain and Lemoync, and then studied in Rome. In 1741 he was elected to the Academy, where he became professor in 1752 and rector in 1777. His "Mercury Fastening His Sandals" (1763), a "Child with Cage," the busts of Marshal ilaurice of Saxony (17.50) and of the surgeon Gu^rin. and the marble statue of the Duke of Richelieu are in the Louvre. Other works by him include a marble group of the "Queen of Heaven," in Saint Sulpice, Paris; the tomb of the Comte d'Harcourt — ])artly destroyed, but restored — in Xotre Dame. Paris; a statue of Voltaire in the library of the Institute; and his masterpiece, the tomb of ilarshal Maurice of Saxony, in the Church of Saint Thomas at Strass- burg. Consult Tarbe, La vie et les ceuvres de J. B. Pigalle (Rheims, 1859). PIGEON (OF. pigeon, pipion, Fr. pigeon. It. piccioiif, pippione, pigeon, from Lat. pipio, squab, young bird, from pipire, to chirp, onomatopoetic in origin). A name applied, like dove (q.v.), to all members of the family Colunibid;e. Al- though members of the group differ greatly in size and color, with a fe-n- exceptions they are easily recognized. They are chiefly medium-sized or rather large birds. Most of those of tem- perate regions are plainly colored with gray. brown, or slate, and some black and white. l)ut some of the tropical forms show brighter shades of blue and purple; while the fruit-pigeons of the far Orient are gorgeous in green, yellow, orange, red, violet, and blue. The wings are usually long and pointed; the tail more or less elongated. The crop is large and double : during the breeding season it becomes glandular and secretes a milky fluid upon which the young are in part fed, or at any rate it moistens the food given them by their parents. The plunuige of pigeons is generally very dense, quite smooth, often reflecting metallic lustres; the feathers entirely lack the aftershaft. Pigeons are monogamous, and the birds seem much attached to each other, and share mutually the labors of nest-building, incubating, and caring for the young. The nests are alway=i flimsy structures of a few twigs in a tree, and the eggs, almost always two in number, are pure white. The young are naked and helpless when hatched. Pigeons are vegetarians, and eat fruit, grain, seeds, and the like, and are therefore often destructive in cultivated fields. Their notes are soft, low, and rhythmic — well described as 'coo- ing.' The flesh of most species is good eating, and they are ranked game-birds and are much Vol. XVI —2. hunted. The flesh is nutritious, and that of the young, or 'squabs,' from twenty to twenty-five days old, is particularly delicate, and in sonic parts of the United States great numbers of domesticated doves are reared for market. One establishment near I.os Angeles, Cal.. kept in 1901 more than 10.000 to supply the demand for this delicacy. Jlore than 300 species of pigeon are known, of which nearly or quite half are the so-called fruit-pigeons' of the East. The geographical distribution of the pigeons, living and extinct, suggests some of the most interesting inquiries in zoology. One interesting fact is that pigeons are generally absent from regions where monkeys abound, as these nimble thieves rob their open, unprotected nests so persistently that the two races of animals cannot dwell in the same dis- trict. Twelve species have been taken within the boundaries of the United States, but eight of these are West Indian or Mexican species, found only occasionally along our southem boundary. The remaining four are the little groimd-dove (q.v.) : the common 'mourning' or Carolina dove (Zenaiduru macrouia), abundant throughout temperate Xorth America : the band-tailed pigeon {Coliimbfi fasciatii). a large stout species, with a noticeable black bar across the bluish-ash tail, common from the Rocky ^Mountains to the Pa- cific; and the formerly very numerous 'wild' or 'passenger' pigeon. The Xorth American wild pigeon {Ectopistes miyrotorius) is especially interesting from the marvelous numbers composing its flocks before the settlement of the interior of the country caused its almost total disappearance. It is a large, slender bird, with a small head, notched beak, turned at the base, short strong legs with naked feet, a. long acuminate tail, and very long, pointed and powerftil wings. It is a beautiful bird, of very graceful form and finely colored plumage, and formerly was found in almost all parts of Xorth America. It is not, properly speaking, a bird of pa.ssage, as apparently its movements are consequent on the failure of a supply of food in one locality and the necessity of .seeking it in another. Its power of flight is very great. The nest of the passenger pigeon consists of a few dry twigs placed in a fork of the branches of a forest tree, and contains two eggs. They breed two or three times in a season. Although both the bird and its nest are rarities now. only isolated colonies remaining in the less settled parts of the country, during the early part of the nineteenth- century incredible numbers of pigeons were wont to roost at night and nestle in certain breeding-places in the forests of the Mississippi Valley, w-here sometimes 100 or more nests were often seen in a single tree. These great breeding- places extended over a tract of forest, sometimes not less than forty miles in length. Flocks of pigeons were often seen flying at a gi-eat height in dense columns, eight or ten miles long; and cal- culations nuide by careful observers agreed that in some of their great migrations the column, a mile broad, was more than l-'iO miles long. The roosting-places were correspondingly extensive. The noise of wings and of cooing voices drowned the report of guns. The nniltitudes which settled on trees broke do^vn great branches by their weight, so that it was dangerous to pass beneath. They crowded together, alighting one upon an- other, till they formed solid masses like hogs-