Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/29

* PIGEON. 13 PIGMENT. another landmark and so proceed from known plate to place until it reaches home. Many societies in various parts of the world are breed- ing these pigeons and perfectiii},' their abilities, and .500mile races are fre(|uently run. The pigeons are a family, Columbida', of the charadriiform suborder ('dlumba', which also in- cludes the famiJies Didida' (see Done) and Didunculida' (or tooth-liilU'd pigeons). The Columbida; are divided by structural features into several subfamilies: (1) Gourinse, containing the gouras (q.v. ). (2) Peristerina', containing such tropical groups as the Nieobar pigeon, the wonga wonga of Australia, the bronze-wings, and .several other robust, often terrestrial form.s of the Ka.st and West Indies ; also the ground-doves of American warm latitudes; the scaly doves of the Andean region : the American mourning- doves; together with the many species of turtle- doves of the Old World. (3) Columbina=, the typical pigeons. (4) Treronina', the fruit- pigeons, in the widest sense, about 120 species, most of which are Oriental and African. Biiii.ioiiRAl'HY. Excellent popular accounts of pigeons in general will be found in the SlantUml and the Royal aliirul Histories: by Evans in liirdx (Xew York. 1900) ; and by Newton, in Dictioiiart/ of Birds (Xew York, ISOO), the latter with numy bibliographical references. ilono- graphs have been prepared by Temminck (1808- 11), Prevost (18.38-43), and' Selby (18.3.5), but the most recent is Salvadori's vol. xxi. (London. 1893) of the Calalogiie of Birds in the British Museum. In respect to domestic pigeons, many works exist, of which the foremost is Tegetmeier, I'igeons, Their Structure, etc. (London. 1807) ; Ilarwin, Oriijin of Species (London. Gth ed., 1882); id.. Viiriation of Aninuils und Plants (London, 2d ed., 1875) ; Helm. Cultivated Plants and Domestic Animals (English trans, by Stallibrass. London. 1891) ; Rice, The alio,i- ul Standard Sfjuab Book (Boston, 1902); id., Pohinson's Method of Breeding Squabs (ib., 1902). PIGEON-BERRY. The fruit of a perennial herb. See Poke : PHYTOLACCA. PIGEON-ENGLISH. See Pidgix-Exglish. PIGEON-FXYING. The art and practice of training and coursing carrier pigeons, according to the rules of societies which exist for the pro- motion of competitive races. See Pigeox. PIGEON-HAWK. A falcon {Falco. or .-Esalon. coliinibarius), inhabiting the cold and temperate parts of America. It is from twelve to fourteen inches in length, with a spread of w ing, in the female, of from two feet to twenty- six inches. The male, as is usual with falcons, is smaller. In the adult the back is of a bluish slate color, every feather having a longitudinal black line. The throat, breast and belly are pale pinkish or yellowish white, each feather with a longitudinal line of very dark brown. The quills are !>lack. with ashy white tips; bill blue, legs reddish yellow, with dark lines. It is the most fierce of all hawks in proportion to its size, and lives mainly upon small birds, such as pigeons, but rarely if ever attacks poultry*. It breeds in the northern part of the continent, but passes the winter in the tropics. A familiar hawk of India, known to falconers there as "'turumti' {Falco typus) , and an Ethiopian species (Falco ruficoUis) coni])lete this lively and interesting genus. Consult .American and European ornith- ologies, especially Fisher, llauks and Owls of the United States (Washington, 1893). PIGEON-PEA {■('a Janus). A genus of planLs of I he nalural order Leguminosie. of which there is only one species (Cajanus indicus). a native of the Ea.st Indies, but much cultivated also in the West Indies and in Africa, where, as in other tropical countries, the plants annually drop their leaves and reproduce new ones with their flowers, when they are productive for several years. The seeds are among the most valuable tropical kinds of pulse. Tlic plant is a shrub attaining a height of four to ten feet when grown in favorable regions. alth(nigb in cultivation it is generally treated as an annual. It grows either in rich or poor soils. Tested at the Louisiana Experiment Station, the pigeon-pea was found very susceptible to frost and not well adapted to growing in this country. PIGEON-PLUM. A Florida fruit. See Seaside <;rai'e. PIGLHEIN, pig"l-hln. Brino (1848-94). A (iciiiian painter, born at Hamburg, where he orig- inally studied sculpture under Lippelt. Sub.se- ([ucntly a pufiil of Schilling in Dresden, he was induenccd by a visit to Italy to take up painting under Pauwels at Weimar (1870), then studied under Oiez in JIunich and after some decorative work became more widely known through his re- ligious composition "Jloritur in Deo" ( 1879, Na- tional Gallery, Berlin), representing Christ on the cross kissed by the Angel of Death. Soon after- wards he began to cultivate the pastel almost ex- clusively, and depicted fashionable ladies, roufe, masked figures and dancers, but also exi'cuted nuiny refined portraits of women and cliildren. and scenes from child life, of which the "hlyl" (child and dog snugly seated I)y the water) be- came widely familiar through reproductions. .fter 1886 he gave preference again to religious subjects, well exemplified bv an ■■Entombment" ( 1888). in the New Pinakothek at Munich, which also contains the impressive '■Blind Jlaiilen Going to the Well" (1890). PIGMENT. See Paixts. PIGMENT (Lat. pigmentum, from pingere, to paint; connected with Skt. pi-i, to adorn). In animals, the coloring granular matter in certain cells of the inner Layer ('dernui' of vertebrates, 'hypoderma' of arthropods) of the skin. In numunals and man the pigment is brown or near- ly black, tlu)t of the retina of the eye very black and abundant, and is always situated in cells of the Malpighian layer, which lies between the epidermis aiid derma; in amphibians the pig- ment is accunuilated mostly in the derma, partly diffused, and partly inclosed within the cells. In birds, the skin being very thin and concealed by the feathers, the coloring matter is mainly con- fined to the feathers. The principal pigments are; Zoiimelanin. the black animal coloring mat- ter, distributed in amorphous little corpuscles, insoluble in water, alcohol, acid, or ether, but dissolved and destroyed when boiled in caustic potash and then treated with chlorine; it consists of about .53.5 per cent, of carbon. 4.6 of hydrogen. 8.2 of nitrogen, and 32.7 of oxygen. Zoiiery- thrin. red, hitherto found in the red feathers of the cotinga, flamingo, ibis, cockatoo, car-