Genus COLUMBA.
Gen. Char. B ill of mean strength, straight at the base, with the tip or horny point compressed
and deflected. Base of the upper mandible covered with a soft, protuberant, cartilaginous
substance in which the nostrils are lodged towards the middle of the bill, forming a
longitudinal cleft. Feet with three toes before, entirely divided, and with one hind toe
articulated on the heel. Claws short, strong and blunt. Wings of moderate length and
acuminate ; the first quill rather shorter than the second, which is the longest.
WOOD PIGEON.
Columba palumbus, Linn.
La Colombe ramier.
The Wood Pigeon, or Ring-dove, is, in Europe, the largest species o f the genus to which it belongs, and is
sufficiently common over the whole o f the European continent to be exceedingly well known, hut is considerably
more abundant as well as more stationary in the southern parts. It lives principally in woods and
forests, and feeds upon all kinds o f grain, the leaves o f some plants, corn, beech-nuts and acorns. In the
British Islands the Wood Pigeon is a constant resident in the large tracts o f wooded and inclosed districts,
feeding during summer and autumn on the leaves o f young clover, green corn, peas, beans, &c., and resorting
in flocks during the severer weather o f winter to turnip-fields, and to the woods for berries and the harder
produce o f oaks and other trees.
Early in the spring these birds begin to p a ir ; they make a flat thin nest o f small sticks loosely put together,
a fir tree in a grove or plantation being a favourite receptacle, on one o f the horizontal branches o f which
the nest is placed, generally twelve or sixteen feet from the ground. The eggs are two in number, oval and
white; the young birds are fed from the softened contents o f the parent’s crop, and two or three pair o f young
birds, generally a male and a female in each pair, are produced in the season. Ornithologists agree that this
species o f Pigeon has never been induced to breed in confinement. Montagu says, “ W e have been at
considerable pains to endeavour to domesticate this bird; and though we have tamed them within doors so
as to be exceedingly troublesome, yet we never could produce a breed, either by themselves or with the
tame Pigeon. Two were bred up together with a male Pigeon, and were so tame as to eat out o f the hand,
but as they showed no signs o f prolificacy in the spring, were suffered to take their liberty in the month of
June, by opening the window o f the room in which they were confined, thinking the Pigeon might induce
them to return to their usual place of abode, either for food or to roost; but they instantly took to their
natural habits, and we saw no more o f them, although the Pigeon continued to return.”
For the information and encouragement o f those who may have the inclination as well as the opportunity
o f making further trials, with the view to endeavour to domesticate so large and valuable a species, we are
enabled to state, that a pair o f these birds in the dove-house at the Gardens o f the Zoological Society in the
Regent’s Park, built a nest and produced two eggs, but unfortunately during the period o f incubation, in which
the male assists, the eggs were broken by some of the numerous other birds, most o f them o f the same genus,
with which they were confined.
The head, coverts o f the wings and scapulars are o f a deep blueish ash colour; the neck in front and the
breast vinaceous, beautifully glossed with green and copper colour, changeable in different lights ; on each side
o f the neck is a large patch of glossy white; back and tail ash colour, the latter black at the end ; vent and
thighs white, tinged with ash colour; the bastard wing almost black, near which a few o f the coverts are
white, forming a line down to the greater quills, which are dusky, edged with white; beak pale flesh colour,
the tip reddish orange ; legs and feet red.
Like most o f the genus, the Wood Pigeon has great powers o f flight. There is little or no distinction in
the plumage o f the sexes; but the male is the larger bird o f the two.
Young birds before their first moult have neither the white space on the sides o f the neck, nor the brilliant
and glossy appearance o f the plumage o f adult birds: the whole o f their colours also are less pure and
decided.
We have figured an old and a young bird of the natural size.