the PIGEON, in ornithology, a genus belonging to the order of passerines. The characters of this genus are as follow: The bill is straight, and descends towards the point; the nostrils are oblong, and half covered with a soft tumid membrane; and the tongue is entire, i.e. not cloven. There are 40 species, all natives of different countries. The following are the most remarkable.

1. The enas, or domestic pigeon, and all its beautiful varieties, derive their origin from one species, the stock-dove; the English name implying its being the stock or stem from whence the other domestic birds spring. These birds, as Varro observes, take their Latin name, columba, from their voice or cooing; and, had he known it, he might have added the British also; for Flemmen, kylobman, kulm, and kelw, signify the same bird. They were, and still are, to be found in most parts of our island in a state of nature; but probably the Romans first taught the Britons how to construct pigeon-houses, and make the birds domestic. The characters of the domestic pigeon are the following. It is of a deep bluish ash-colour; the breast dished with a fine changeable green and purple; the sides of the neck with shining copper-colour; its wings marked with two black bars, one on the coverts of the wings, the other on the quill feathers; the back white, and the tail barred near the end with black. They weigh 14 ounces. In the wild state it breeds in holes of rocks and hollows of trees; for which reason some people style it columba cavernalis, in opposition to the ring-dove, which makes its nest on the boughs of trees. Nature always preserves some agreement in the manners, characters, and colours of birds reclaimed from their wild state. This species of pigeon soon takes to build in artificial cavities, and from the temptation of a ready provision becomes easily domesticated. Multitudes of these wild birds are are observed to migrate into the south of England; and, while the beech-woods were suffered to cover large tracts of ground, they used to haunt them in myriads, reaching in strings a mile in length, as they went out in the morning to feed. They visit Britain the latest of any bird of passage, not appearing till November, and retiring in the spring. Mr Pennant imagines, that the summer haunts of these creatures are in Sweden, as Mr Eckmark makes their retreat thence coincide with their arrival in Britain. Numbers of them, however, breed on cliffs of the coast of Wales, and of the Hebrides. The varieties produced from the domestic are very numerous, and extremely elegant; they are distinguished by names expressive of their several properties, as tumbler, carrier, jacobines, croppers, pointers, runts, turbits, owls, nuts, &c. The most celebrated of these is the carrier, of which an account is already given under the article Carrier-Pigeon. The nature of pigeons is to be gregarious; to lay only two eggs, and to breed many times in the year. So quick is their increase, that the author of the "Oeconomy of Nature" observes, that in the space of four years, 14,760 pigeons may come from a single pair. They bill during their courtship; the male and female fit, and also feed their young, by turns; they cast provilion out of their craw into the young ones mouth; and drink, not by sipping, like other birds, but by continued draughts like quadrupeds; and have mournful or plaintive notes.

2. The palumbus, or ring-dove is a native of Europe and Asia. It is the largest pigeon we have; and might be distinguished from all others by its size alone. Its weight is about 20 ounces; its length 18, the breadth 30 inches. The head, back, and covers of the wings are of a bluish ash-colour; the lower side of the neck; and breast are of a purplish red, dappled with ash-colour; on the hind part of the neck is a semi-circular line of white; above and beneath that, the feathers are glossy, and of changeable colours as opposed to the light. This species forms its nest of a few dry sticks in the boughs of trees. Attempts have been made to domesticate them by hatching their eggs under the common pigeon in dove-houses; but as soon as they could fly, they always take to their proper haunts. In the beginning of winter they assemble in great flocks, and leave off cooing, which they begin in March when they pair.

3. The turtur, or turtle-dove, is a native of India. The length is twelve inches and a half; its breadth 21; the weight four ounces. The irides are of a fine yellow, and the eye-lids encompassed with a beautiful crimson circle. The chin and forehead are whitish; the top of the head ash-coloured, mixed with olive. On each side of the neck is a spot of black feathers prettily tipped with white; the back ash-coloured, bordered with olive brown; the scapulars and coverts of a reddish brown spotted with black; the breast of a light purplish red, having the verge of each feather yellow; the belly white. The tail is three inches and a half long; the two middle feathers of a dusky brown; the others black, with white tips; the end and exterior side of the outmost feathers wholly white. In the breeding season these birds are found in Buckinghamshire, Gloucester-shire, Shropshire, and the west of England. They are very shy and retired, breeding in thick woods, generally of oak; in autumn they migrate into other countries.

4. The passerina, or ground-dove of Carolina, is about the size of a lark. The bill is yellow, and black at the end; the iris red; the breast and whole front of a changeable purple, with dark purple spots; the large quill-feathers are of a muddy purple; the legs and feet of a dirty yellow; but the whole bird has such a composition of colours in it, that a very particular description is impossible. They fly many of them together, and make short flights from place to place, generally lighting on the ground.

5. The migratoria, or pigeon of passage, is about the size of an English wood-pigeon; the bill black; iris red; the head of a dusky blue; the breast and belly of a faint red; above the shoulder of the wing there is a patch of feathers shining like gold; the wing is coloured like the head, having some few spots of black (except that the larger feathers of it are dark brown with some white on the exterior vanes; the tail is very long, and covered with a black feather, under which the rest are white; the legs and feet are red. They come in prodigious numbers from the north, to winter in Virginia and Carolina. In these countries they roost upon one another's backs in such quantities that they often break down the limbs of oaks which support them, and leave their dung some inches thick below the trees. In Virginia Mr Catesby has seen them fly in such continued trains for three days successively, that they were not lost sight of for the least interval of time, but somewhere in the air they were seen continuing their flight southward. They breed in rocks by the sides of rivers and lakes far north of St Laurence. They fly to the south only in hard winters, and are never known to return.

Columba (St.), in allusion to whose name the island of Jona (one of the Hebrides) received its name; Jona being derived from a Hebrew word signifying a dove. This holy man, inflamed by his zeal, left his native country, Ireland, in the year 565, with the pious design of preaching the gospel to the Picts. It appears that he left his native soil with warm resentment, vowing never to make a settlement within sight of that hated island. He made his first trial at Oranay; and finding that place too near to Ireland, succeeded to his wish at Hy, for that was the name of Jona at the time of his arrival. He repeated here the experiment on several hills, erecting on each a heap of stones; and that which he last ascended is to this day called Carnan-chul-rech-Eirinn, or the eminence of the back turned to Ireland.

Columba was soon distinguished by the sanctity of his manners: a miracle that he wrought, so operated on the Pictish king Bradeus, that he immediately made a present of the little isle to the saint. It seems that his majesty had refused Columba an audience; and even proceeded so far as to order the palace-gates to be shut against him: but the saint, by the power of his word, instantly caused them to fly open. As soon as he was in possession of Jona, he founded a cell of monks, borrowing his institutions from a certain oriental monastic order. It is said that the first religious were canons regular, of whom the founder was the first abbot; and that his monks, till the year 716, differed from those of the church of Rome, both in the observation of Easter, and in the clerical tonsure. Columba led here an exemplary life, and was highly respected for the sanctity of his manners for a considerable number of years. He is the first on record who had the faculty of second sight, for he told the victory of Aidan over the Picts and Saxons on the very instant it happened. He had the honour of burying in his island, Connallius and Kinnatil, two kings of Scotland, and of crowning a third. At length, worn out with age, he died, in Iona, in the arms of his disciples; was interred there, but (as the Irish pretend) in after times translated to Down; where, according to the epitaph, his remains were deposited with those of St Bridget and St Patrick.

Hi tres in Dana tumulo tumulatur in uno; Brigida, Patricia, atque Columba plus.

But this is totally denied by the Scots; who affirm, that the contrary is thrown in a life of the saint, extracted out of the pope's library, and translated out of the Latin into Erse, by Father Cail o' beran; which decides, in favour of Iona, the momentous dispute.