The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-05-12
Odd Facts About Pigeons.

"Thats the only bird that ever created
BOOM" Park keeper said, referring to
a fine large blue bird with an immense
crown of feathers waving on its bead.
"How SOP"
because that's the only sound it makes.
If you didn't see it you would think
some one had struck big drum quar-
ter of q mile away. Its regular boom
boom, and when it makes the noise it
bows its head, so that its crown sweeps
the ground. Its the crowned pigeon
from New Zealand, and between this
cage and the stuffed birds in the museum
we can show nearly every pigeon IN the
world, and you'd be astonished to see
how many different kinds there are. We
have pouters, fan tails, nuns, carriers,
and all the fancy breeds alive, besides
wood doves and this crowned fellow; and
occasionally we have big flock Of wild
pigeons here, but the sparrows drive
them off. You wouldn't think big bird
like pigeon would run from sparrow,
but they do. The little birds collect in
crowds, and when o flock of pigeons
comes sweeping over they make rush
for them in body, and take right hold,
tooth and tail, and as the pigeons sweep
down to get out of the way they are lit
orally chased out of the park"
In the pigeon case in the museum are
some of the bones of that extinct and
much maligned bird, the dodo, the giant
of pigeons, being the only specimen in
the country Two hundred and fifty
years ago they were found in the Mauri-
thus Islands in great quantities. 1t was
q curious bird. as large as a swan. The
bill in the case is not unpigeonlike, though
one hundred times the size of its mod
ern representative. They we're sluggish
birds, unable to fly and laid single egg
about the size of turkeys. Brontius,
an old Dutch writer of the period, gives
the following quaint account of them:
1.-The dronte, or doddors, is, for bigness,
of mean size between an ostrich and
turkey, from which it partly differs in
shape and partly agrees with them, es-
pecially with the African ostriches, if
you consider the rump, quilts and
feathers, so that it was like a pigmy
among them if you regard shortness of
legs. 1t hath great ill-favored head,
with kind of membrane resembling a
hood; great black eyes; bending, prom
inent fat neck; an extraordinary, long,
strong, blue white bill, only the ends of
each mandible are different color-that
of the upper black, that Of the neither
yellowish-both sharp, pointed and
crooked; its cape huge, wide, as being
voracious. Its body is fat
and round, covered with soft gray
feathers, after the manner of
an ostrich's on each side.
Instead of hard wing feathers, or quilts,
it is furnished with small soft feathered
wings of yellowish ash color, and be-
hind, the rump, instead of tail, is
adorned with five small curled feathers
of the same calor. Four toes on each
foot-solid, long, as it were, really
armed with strong black claws" They
at one time were so plentiful that they
were killed for the stones that were
found in their stomachs, and on which
the sailors sharpened their knives.
Another queer pigeon that lived at that
time, and which is now extinct, is the
solitaire. It was found on the island of
1t was larger than turkey.
and in general respects resembled the
dodo. Another was the Nazarene, that
was twice as large as the dodo. But the
most remarkable was the didunculus, q
living relative and closely allied to the
dodo. The bird was rather larger than
our common partridge, and possessed
the curious naked skin surrounding the
eyes which characterized its ancestors.
One of the finest of the thirty or more
different species of pigeons is the Oceanic
fruit bird of the Pelen Islands. There
they are found in thousands, feeding on
nutmegs. They become very fat, and
the fat, which has strong flavor of the
nutmeg, is considered great dainty by
many. 1t is said that they grow SO fat
that when shot they fall to the ground
and are shattered to pieces by the fall.
Not only are they valuable as means of
but they seem to have been
to help carve out one of the
great laws of nature. 1t is we'll known
fact that the nutmeg has to pass through
some chemical process before it will
grow, and in the stomach of these birds
the nutmeg is prepared for reproduce
ton.
Among this family of birds the passen-
ger pigeon is one of the most wonderful.
Wilson's description of their camping
grounds is: "As soon as the young
were fully grown, and before they left
their nests, numerous parties of the in
habitants from all parts of the country
came with wagons, oxen, beds, cooking
utensils, many of them accompanied by
the greater part of their families. and
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