a piece of mud far removed from where any automobiles could be.
Footprints around a KEEP OFF sign.
Two pigeons feeding each other.
Two showgirls, whose faces had not yet thawed the frost of their makeup, treading indignantly through the slush.
A plump old man saying “Chick, chick” and feeding peanuts to squirrels.
Many solitary men throwing snowballs at tree trunks.
Many birds calling to each other about how little the Ramble has changed.
One red mitten lying lost under a poplar tree.
An airplane, very bright and distant, slowly moving through the branches of a sycamore.
No Dodo
November 1955
L ATELY , we’ve been pondering the pigeons in Bryant Park. It seemed to us that they showed a decided preference for the paving, and trod the grass gingerly and seldom. Only once did we see one roost in a tree. It was an awkward, touching performance, like that of a man tying the bow of an apron behind him. Why should the common pigeon be embarrassed in the presence of vegetation? Because, research showed, he is a descendant of the blue rock dove.
Columba livia
is a native of the cliffs and rocky islands of western Europe and northern Africa, with subspecies ranging from the Canary Islands to India and Japan. The American branch stems from some of the English colonists’ domestic pigeons, who flew the coop, went wild, shed their fancy shapes (the shapes of domestic pigeons can be very fancy), reverted to the parent type, and headed for the cities. Pigeons, or doves, have never made much of a distinction between natural and man-made crannies. Song of Solomon 2:14 apostrophizes “my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs.” Homer speaks of “Messe’s towers for silver doves renowned,” and Juvenal describes “the tiled roof where the gentle pigeons leave their eggs.” Tibullus asks, “Why need I tell how the sacred white pigeon flutters unmolested about the numerous cities of Syrian Palestine?” No other bird has been as widely revered. Disturbing their nests in the Mosque of Doves, Istanbul, is blasphemy. In 1925, the Bombay Stock Exchange was closed and riots were threatened because two European boys had ignorantly killed some street pigeons. Kama, the Hindu god of love (a minor deity), is sometimes depicted riding a dove. In Christian iconography, the dove represents the Holy Ghost. And, of course, there’s Noah. The Arabian version of the Deluge contains a pretty touch. When the dove returned to the ark the second time, its feet were stained with red mud. Noah, realizing that this meant the waters were receding, prayed that the messenger’s feet might remain that color. They have. There is a Filipino legend that, of all birds, only the dove understands the human tongue.
Pigeons have been the most faithful of man’s feathered friends. Records of the bird’s domestication extend back to the Fifth Egyptian Dynasty, around 3000 B.C. Homing pigeons have been used as messengers through the centuries from Cyrus the Great, of Persia, to yesterday’s bootleggers.How they home is still something of a mystery. Keen eyes and a good memory just don’t quite explain it, and neither do theories about magnetic or electro-magnetic control, sensitivity to light rays, the effect of air currents on the nasal passages or the semicircular canals, or “celestial orientation.” Ancient Romans and medieval monks bred pigeons. Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Victoria were fanciers. The hobby is conjectured to be of Indian or Persian origin, and the results are so elaborate that it took Darwin ninety-eight pages to prove that jacobins, satinettes, barbs (the ideal barb’s head resembles a spool), turbits, dragoons, fantails (when the fantail strikes his favorite pose, he can’t see over his chest), visors, pouters (the pouter looks like a tennis ball stuffed into a glove), long-faced tumblers, inside tumblers (the inside, or parlor, tumbler is prized for his inability to fly a few feet
Footprints around a KEEP OFF sign.
Two pigeons feeding each other.
Two showgirls, whose faces had not yet thawed the frost of their makeup, treading indignantly through the slush.
A plump old man saying “Chick, chick” and feeding peanuts to squirrels.
Many solitary men throwing snowballs at tree trunks.
Many birds calling to each other about how little the Ramble has changed.
One red mitten lying lost under a poplar tree.
An airplane, very bright and distant, slowly moving through the branches of a sycamore.
No Dodo
November 1955
L ATELY , we’ve been pondering the pigeons in Bryant Park. It seemed to us that they showed a decided preference for the paving, and trod the grass gingerly and seldom. Only once did we see one roost in a tree. It was an awkward, touching performance, like that of a man tying the bow of an apron behind him. Why should the common pigeon be embarrassed in the presence of vegetation? Because, research showed, he is a descendant of the blue rock dove.
Columba livia
is a native of the cliffs and rocky islands of western Europe and northern Africa, with subspecies ranging from the Canary Islands to India and Japan. The American branch stems from some of the English colonists’ domestic pigeons, who flew the coop, went wild, shed their fancy shapes (the shapes of domestic pigeons can be very fancy), reverted to the parent type, and headed for the cities. Pigeons, or doves, have never made much of a distinction between natural and man-made crannies. Song of Solomon 2:14 apostrophizes “my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs.” Homer speaks of “Messe’s towers for silver doves renowned,” and Juvenal describes “the tiled roof where the gentle pigeons leave their eggs.” Tibullus asks, “Why need I tell how the sacred white pigeon flutters unmolested about the numerous cities of Syrian Palestine?” No other bird has been as widely revered. Disturbing their nests in the Mosque of Doves, Istanbul, is blasphemy. In 1925, the Bombay Stock Exchange was closed and riots were threatened because two European boys had ignorantly killed some street pigeons. Kama, the Hindu god of love (a minor deity), is sometimes depicted riding a dove. In Christian iconography, the dove represents the Holy Ghost. And, of course, there’s Noah. The Arabian version of the Deluge contains a pretty touch. When the dove returned to the ark the second time, its feet were stained with red mud. Noah, realizing that this meant the waters were receding, prayed that the messenger’s feet might remain that color. They have. There is a Filipino legend that, of all birds, only the dove understands the human tongue.
Pigeons have been the most faithful of man’s feathered friends. Records of the bird’s domestication extend back to the Fifth Egyptian Dynasty, around 3000 B.C. Homing pigeons have been used as messengers through the centuries from Cyrus the Great, of Persia, to yesterday’s bootleggers.How they home is still something of a mystery. Keen eyes and a good memory just don’t quite explain it, and neither do theories about magnetic or electro-magnetic control, sensitivity to light rays, the effect of air currents on the nasal passages or the semicircular canals, or “celestial orientation.” Ancient Romans and medieval monks bred pigeons. Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Victoria were fanciers. The hobby is conjectured to be of Indian or Persian origin, and the results are so elaborate that it took Darwin ninety-eight pages to prove that jacobins, satinettes, barbs (the ideal barb’s head resembles a spool), turbits, dragoons, fantails (when the fantail strikes his favorite pose, he can’t see over his chest), visors, pouters (the pouter looks like a tennis ball stuffed into a glove), long-faced tumblers, inside tumblers (the inside, or parlor, tumbler is prized for his inability to fly a few feet
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