Pigeons are distributed throughout the greater part of the globe, but their center of abundance appears to be in the Malay Archipelago, where about one hundred and twenty of the some three hundred known species are found. One hundred or more species have been described from the New World but only twelve of these inhabit North America.
The various races of domestic Pigeons, 'Pouters,' 'Fantails,' etc. are descendants of the Rock Dove of Europe, modified in form and habit through the selection by the breeder or 'fancier.'
Pigeons build a flimsy, platform nest of twigs and lay two white eggs. Both sexes incubate, one relieving the other at certain hours each day. The young are born naked and are fed by regurgitation, on 'Pigeons' milk,' the parent thrusting its bill into the mouth of its young and discharging therein food which has been softened in its own crop.
Some species of Pigeons nest in isolated pairs, others in large colonies, but it is the habit of many species to gather in large flocks after the nesting season.
The Wild or Passenger Pigeon, once so abundant in this county, was found in flocks throughout the year. Alexander Wilson, the 'father of American Ornithology' writing about 1808, estimated that a flock of Wild Pigeons seen by him near Frankfort, Kentucky, contained at least 2,230,272,000 individuals. Audubon writes that in 1805 he saw schooners at the wharves in New York city loaded in bulk with Wild Pigeons caught up the Hudson River, which were sold at one cent each.
As late as 1876 or 1877 there was a colony of nesting Wild Pigeons in Michigan, which was twenty-eight miles long and averaged three or four miles in width, and in 1881 the birds were still so abundant in parts of the Mississippi Valley that the writer saw thousands of birds, trapped in that region, used in a Pigeon match near New York City.
Today, however, as a result of constant persecution, the Wild Pigeon is so rare that the observation of a single individual is noteworthy.
Pigeons and Doves
| 312. Band-tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciata). L. 15. Ad. ♂. Tail-band ashy above, whiter below; a white nape-band; tail square. Ad. ♀. Similar, or in some specimens, nape band absent; pinkish of crown and breast dingy. Notes. An owl-like hooting, sometimes a calm whoó-hoo-hoo, whoó-koo-hoo, at others a spirited hoóp-ah-whóo, and again wh'oo-ugh. (Bailey.) Range.—"Western United States from Rocky Mountains to the Pacific: north to Washington and British Columbia; south to Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala; distribution irregular, chiefly in wooded mountain regions." (A. O. U.) 312a. Viosca Pigeon (C. f. vioscæ). Similar to [no. 312], but paler, more clearly bluish slate above; pink of crown and breast with a grayish bloom. Range.—Cape Region of Lower California. 313. Red-billed Pigeon (Columba flavirostris). L. 15. Ads. No tail-band; wings, tail, and belly slate; head and neck purplish pink; no iridescent markings. Notes. A fine, loud, coo-whoo-er-whoo. Range.—Costa Rica migrating north to southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. 314. White-crowned Pigeon (Columba leucocephala). L. 13.5 Ad. ♂. Crown white; body slate; lower hindneck iridescent; nape maroon. Ad. ♀. Much paler; crown ashy. Range.—Greater Antilles and Islands about Anegada Channel, coast of Honduras, Bahamas and certain Florida Keys. |