CHAPTER VI.

PIGEONS NOT CAPABLE OF TRUE DOMESTICATION.

The Stockdove.-Natural instincts.-The Ring Dove.-Mischief done by.-The Turtle Dove.-Peculiarities.-Australian Pigeons.. Whether domesticable.The Wonga-Wonga.-Claims to notice.-Mr. Gould's opinion.-Bronze-winged Pigeons.-Native habits.-Water guides.-Temminck's account. - Plumage.Interest of Australian Pigeons.-Have bred in confinement.-Captain Sturt's accounts.-Abstinence from water.-Aid in extremities.-Ventriloquist Pigeon. -Geopelia tranquillæ.-Harlequin Bronze-wing. First discovery.-Food and habits. Their doings at Knowsley.-Graceful Ground Dove.-Minute birds and beasts of Australia.-Mr. Gould's account.-Crested Australian Pigeons.Their breeding at Knowsley.-Habits in captivity.-The Passenger Pigeon.Disposition.-Escaped birds.-The Long-tailed Senegal Dove.-Their song.— Synonyms.-Aviary management.

HERE we have a wide field, from which only a few gleanings can be gathered in illustration of our main subject, which the reader will perceive to be "Birds in their relation to human society." The precedence in these notices shall be given to the Pigeons of our own Island.

The STOCK DOVE (C. Enas) makes a very elegant and pleasing aviary bird. Its plumage is rich, bluish gray being the prevalent hue; and the changing colours of the neck are more gemlike than those of common Pigeons. Taken from the nest when young, it is easily reared, and becomes as familiar and apparently as much attached to home as the other sorts usually kept. But as the birds get older, a pining for the woods comes over them; they make excursions to the neighbouring groves, returning less and less frequently to the place where they have been nurtured and are still supplied with food by man, till at last they are utterly fascinated by

the delights of sylvan freedom, and become followers of Robin Hood and other forest-haunting outlaws: not that they love man less, but that they love the woods more. If, therefore, they are to be retained in captivity, an aviary must ever be their prison; unless it be preferred that they should go at large in a still more sorrowful condition, with a clipped wing or a shortened pinion *.

The RING DOVE (C. Palumbus) is a much larger bird, of perhaps still more beautiful plumage, which is too well known to be particularized here. It is, however, less docile, and more difficult to rear. The best way to procure them for the aviary is to get from the nest three-quarter grown squabs, and feed them, by mouth, with peas and water. They are too large to be easily brought up by domestic Pigeons as foster-parents. “I have been consoling myself," writes a friend, "for bad success with chickens, by rearing Wild Ducks and Wood Pigeons. The former do well at present, and are amusing little creatures, not very wild either; the latter I have in two instances hatched under my pigeons, and for one week they have tended them well; but, after that, finding out, I suppose, the trick put upon them, they have deserted their foster-children. result of this experiment is not yet conclusive, and may, after all, be a mere accident. If I can get eggs easily, I shall probably try again, taking care to put them under a different pair from either of the others. The Ring Dove is a very great ornament to our dark fir woods and cedars, and will frequently build in some beeches close to where the domestic birds are housed; of which, however, they never take the slightest notice.”—H. H.

The

* "A neighbour here kept a Stockdove and a Blue Rock together in vain for a long time."-D. L., Keswick, Cumberland.

CHAP. VI.]

THE TURTLE DOVE.

189

Ring Doves are irregularly migratory, sometimes appearing in large flocks, the numbers composing which seem incredible when estimated. They commit great havoc on the new-sown grain and the buds of the young clover plant; they also eat great quantities of mast and the seeds of noxious weeds. Rewards have been offered in Scotland for their destruction, with the view of keeping them down; but this is of little use unless at the same time a tall net, over which they could not fly, could be stretched somewhere, as a colossal fence, between Norway and our eastern coast. The best means of reducing their numbers is to publish their excellence for the table at the times when they do not feed upon turnips. Then they punish the farmer indeed, pecking holes in the bulbs for the frost and wet to work upon. The young birds would be acceptable in London in the height of the fashionable season; but then no gamekeeper will allow a gun to be fired in his preserves, lest more valuable prey should be driven into the next parish.

The TURTLE DOVE (C. Turtur) is a very pretty, very untrustworthy little creature, less known than the preceding. When reared from the nest, it becomes tame enough to be even an interesting cage bird; but a pair thus educated, and seemingly contented, in a greenhouse, slipped out cunningly, and were never heard of again. Perhaps, by the time their flight was discovered, they had got half way to Africa; for the very best part only of the year will suit them with us. They adopt the family habits of drinking deeply at a draught, and tickling each other's heads. The coo might be mistaken for the croaking of a frog or toad. When heard close at hand, it has a sort of burring, bubbling sound, and

consists of two syllables or measures, the second being reduplicated, and the whole accented like the words, Ah! Mamma!" The Turtle Dove is much the smallest of our native Columbida. The plumage may be generally described as ashy brown: the spot on the side of the neck, and the white tips to the tail feathers, are the most ornamental points of it. In the spots on the neck trifling variations occur, which may safely be referred to age. In Shropshire, this bird is believed to be found nowhere else except about the Wrekin, and hence is claimed by them as the Wrekin Dove; but the species has a most extensive geographical range. Such exclusive possession of the Turtle Dove is no more a fact than that the Wrekin is Mount Ida, or that the Shropshire gentry dwell on the top of it to represent the gods and goddesses.

Curiosity and hope next lead us to glance at Australia, to ascertain whether any of the numerous members of the Pigeon family found on that vast island be, by possibility, attachable to our own family circle. Five species only of Pigeons (for the Passenger is hardly admissible, and affinis not yet acknowledged) are found in Europe*; the Ring Dove, the Stock Dove, the Rock Dove, the Common Turtle, and the Collared Turtle; the latter being merely an occasional visitant. One of these has been domesticated, and another tamed and all but domesticated, from time immemorial. It will look like an unusual exception to the doctrine of chances, if, among the small number of five, out of the

* The Turtur Senegalensis, however, is recognised as a European species, and has been found abundantly in Greece. (Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. 18, p. 13).

CHAP. VI.]

WHETHER DOMESTICABLE.

191

long entire list of Columbidæ, we should happen to possess in this island the sole species of the family which is capable of domestication. Twenty-one species are already described by Mr. Gould in Australia alone, and it is not too much to say that not one of them has yet had a trial for a few (of their) successive generations.

The nearer any creatures are to attaining the faculty of domesticability, without actually arriving at the required docility of disposition, the more disappointing and provoking are they to the baffled experimenter. New species, and from new countries, afford matter for speculative trial, which becomes the more hopeful as the subject of it approaches nearer to races which have already submitted to our sway. The Collared Turtle, with a little more love of home, and a little more personal affection, would be as securely our dependent vassal as the Fantail and the Tumbler. How exciting if there be any likelihood of success with the Australian Pigeons! It will surely be acknowledged that these newly-discovered creatures deserve to be fairly tested, species by species, (to see what is in them, not what we can make of them,) to secure the chance that, amidst the multitude of blanks for the poultry-yard, some grand prize, like the Turkey from America, may unexpectedly turn up.

It will be remarkable, indeed, if, after every patient endeavour, among all the Pigeons, the C. livia and its reputed descendants are the only truly domesticable species. It will be an apt comment on the great things man is to do, the domestic races he is even to create! It will be a broad hint, as good nearly as the admonition of an ever-present Prophet, could we but understand it