C. eras. Lin. &c. TVild Pigeon, Stock Pigeon, or Stock Dove. Bluish, cervix glossy green ; jugulum and breast vinaceous; hinder part of the back cincrescent, with a double spot on the wings, and the tip of the tail black. Bill pale red; legs and claws black. Having been long re garded as the common source of all our domestic pigeons, this species has been very generally denominated stock pigeon. It appears, however, to be a distinct species, although it occasionally consorts with the common house pigeon, and may, like it, be induced to breed in dove-cots. It is about fourteen inches in length, and weighs eleven ounces. It is found more or less abundantly in Europe, Asia, and Africa. From the northern regions it migrates in great flocks on the approach of winter. Multitudes visit us in winter, and again retire in spring to their more northerly haunts ; but others of them remain with us throughout the year. When beech woods occupied large tracts of ground, these birds used to frequent them in countless legions, often stretching above a mile in length, as they went forth in a morning, to cater. In a wild state, they form their nests in the holes of rocks and old towers, or in the hollows of decayed trees, but not, as the ring doves, on the boughs. They lay two white eggs, and breed several times in the course of the year. The male and female perform the office of incubation in turn, and feed their young by casting the contents of their crop into the mouths of the little gapers. They are partial to beech mast, and, in default of grain or seeds, have been known to have recourse to the leaves of plants. It is, perhaps, not generally known, that they likewise feed on different sorts of snails, particularly the Helix virgata ; for they not only regale themselves, but treat their offspring to this tender and nutritious food, the shell of which acts as a gentle stimulus to their delicate stomach, and, when ground to a powder, becomes an absorbent, and corrects the acrimonious quality of their other aliments. They may be enticed to a particular spot, by a composition of loam, old rubbish, and salt, which is termed a salt-cat ; but as this device would decoy the pigeons of the owners of dove-cots, it is prohibited by an act of parliament.
C. livia, Tern. C. domestica, Lin. Lc. C. domestica livia, Gmel. Domestic Pigeon. Grey-bluish, with a dou ble black band on the wings ; the lower part of the back white ; the breast pale-vinaceous, and the tip of the tail dusky. Although these characters will apply to a great many of this well-known species, it is, like most other domesticated animals, liable to an almost indefinite variety of markings. Among these, some of the most remarkable are the hite-rumped, or Smaller Rock Pigeon, being of a smaller size than the more ordinary sort, and varying in its hues ; the Roman Pigeon, of various colours, with the cere whitish ; the Rough-footed, having hairy feathers on the feet ; the Crested, also with hairy feathers on the feet, and a crest on the head ; the .Vorwegian, with the head crested, the body snowy-white, and the feet feathered ; the Barbary, with a naked, tuberculated space round the eyes, and a double dusky spot on the wings ; the Jacobine, with the feathers of the occiput erected ; the Laced, with small erected feathers, scattered over the back and wings ; the Turbit, with the feathers on the breast recurved ; the Shaker, with an erect open tail of many feathers ; the Tumbler, that turns over in its flight ; the Helmet, having the head, quills, and tail feathers of one colour, and the body varied ; the Persian or Turkish, with a papillated red cere ; the Carrier, or Messenger, with a carunculated white cere, and the palpebrx naked ; the Pouter, with the breast inflated; the Horseman, with the breast inflated, and the core carunculated ; the Smiler, which turns over in its flight, and makes a loud noise with its wings ; the Turner, which has the feathers in the back of the neck reversed, like a horse's mane; and the Spot, having the body white, and a spot on the forehead, of the same colour as the tail. 'These, and many other varieties, are particu
larly described in works which treat professedly of pigeons, as in Moore's Columbariunz, and Temminck's natural his tory of the genus, in which an ample account will also he found of the managewent of these birds for economical purposes. Some interesting particulars, relative to the conveyance of intelligence by one of the varieties, arc stated under the article to which we beg leave to refer.
Individuals of the present species, when unreclaimed, have two broods in the year, and lay their eggs in nests, rudely constructed in the holes of rocks, or ruined towers; but, in domestic confinement, they will breed from three to twelve times in a year, according to circumstances. They seldom lay more than two eggs at a time, one of which generally produces a male, and the other a female bird. The incubation lasts from fourteen to seventeen days. Domestic pigeons are kept in most parts of the civilized world, the young being reckoned a delicate food, while the dung serves as a good manure for certain de scriptions of land, and is also used in tanning the upper leathers of shoes.
C. tympanistina, Tern. Tambour Pigeon. Forehead, eyebrows, and under parts of the body white ; neck, back, and wings olive-brown ; quills rufous, tail brown, with a black band at the tip of three of its feathers. This is an active and wild species, which inhabits Caffraria, and nestles on the summits of trees in the extensive woods of Africa. Levaillant assigned to it its specific denomination, from the circumstance of its cooing resembling the sound of a tambourine at a distance.
C. turtur, Lin. &c. Common Turtle, Turtle Dove, or Turtle Pigeon. Tail-feathers white at their tips, back greyish, breast vinaceuus, a black spot and white stripes on the sides of the neck ; abdomen white. Twelve inches long. The female is somewhat smaller, wants the white on the forehead, has the quills brownish, and the rest of the colouring less lively than in the male. Among the numerous varieties to which this species is incident, we may notice the Portugal Dove, which is brown, with the spot on the sides of the neck varied with black and white, the tail feathers cinereous, and the outer ones entirely white, on the external web at the tip; and the Luzonian Turtle, which is greyish above, vinaceous-grey beneath, with a black spot un the neck ; the feathers tipped with white, the two in the middle of the tail black, and the la teral ones white.