Joanna here, delving into the nitty gritty of the past. Asking myself what would be familiar to a time traveller dipping into history? What would be stunningly weird?
What I’m pondering today is pigeons.
Like, “What is a pigeon and why isn’t it a dove?” and vice versa.
One of those cases we have two words for the same thing, really. Kind of comforting to know we're stocked up with synonyms.
Background: There are 344 species in the Columbidae family worldwide. They're called pigeon or dove more or less at random. Whenever you think you’ve got some difference nailed down – like pigeons are larger and plumper – you’ll come across some tiny bitty twittering bird in the Far East that’s called a pigeon and category common sense goes flying out the window.
In other zoological news, pigeons are most closely related to cuckoos. Many of us have this problem.
The pigeon I want to talk about is the urban pigeon; the civic pigeon loitering the streets; the sophisticate inhabiting public places from Bangkok to Berlin, Wellington to Waukegan.
This pigeon is officially the "rock dove". Pigeon is also dove.
You say Tomaato, I say tomahto.
The city pigeon is called the ”domestic pigeon” or Columba livia domestica. It's not particularly domesticated but its ancestors were. They went from wild to a farmyard- and household- domestic animal.
Then some of the agricultural types moved to the city and went back to feral again. So they're called both feral pigeons and domestic pigeons.
The word 'dove' entered Middle English as douve in C12, probably ultimately from Proto-Germanic. It might be related to “dive” in reference to its flight.
(Though pigeons don’t seem to dive much, really, IMO.)
But Columba, the name of the Order, is from Greek κόλυμβος ”diver” so somebody thinks they dive.
'Pigeon' is C14, entering English through Old French from Latin pipio, onomatopoeia of the sounds of a young bird.
Since this is a Romance blog, I'll point out that dove has been a term of endearment since late C14.
I'd like to support pigeon also as a term of cuddliness.
Maybe said in a husky male voice with a French accent. “My leettle peegeon.”
Digressing just an instant to look at why pigeons are happy living in our urban midst.
Primus. The wild rock dove likes living on high flat ledges, like rocky cliffs. Our buildings recreate this environment. When a pigeon builds a nest on your windowledge in New York City, it is becoming one with an ancestral ledge overlooking the wine-dark sea.
Secundus. Those pudgy little bodies are amazingly agile and can burst into the air at a great rate of speed.
Discursing in the middle of the digression . . .
I used to take my son, age about five, to the parks in Paris to chase pigeons, which seemed to amuse all the creatures involved. Then one day he caught one. Bit of a shock all round.
Anyhow, tertius, pigeons survive the predators of the city not only by nimbleness but because of how their feathers are attached.
According to the wiki, “body feathers have very dense, fluffy bases, and are attached loosely into the skin. Large numbers of feathers end up in the attacker's mouth and facilitate the bird's escape.”
And quartus, those little feathered suckers can lay a pair of eggs up to six times a year.
Rock doves have been with us, domesticated, for perhaps 5000 years. Household pigeons appear in Roman mosaics. In the Middle Ages we see doves sitting in their dovecotes overlooking and feeding upon the peasants’ crops. From ancient times pigeons carried our messages, were a pleasant target for a day out with a hawk, and made interesting pets.
They also made tasty pie.
Dined at home and Mr. Hawly with me upon six of my pigeons, which my wife has resolved to kill here.
Samuel Pepys, who kept pigeons in his yard
So it was all the gentle usefulness of pigeons through the ages.
I come away with a feeling things have changed.
If you asked city folks what they think of pigeons, terms like "nuisance" and “flying rats” will scatter the conversation.
Paintings of C15 Florence and C19 Paris and etc. do not show pigeons in the city landscape. Was this a painterly convention? Did the grand open spaces of the past not host a flapping feathered multitude?
If not, why not?
Ancient cities and Medieval towns were not short of discarded human and animal food. The cliff-like nesting places were there in 1498 or 1880.
Why do I not find written references or paintings of ravening-flocks of pigeons?
I have a theory.
I think pigeons have been finding the necessities of life in the big city for a thousand years. What’s changed is people stopped bringing a big bag and scooping up the main ingredient of pigeon pie on the way home.
Can’t say exactly why that would stop. It’s very puzzling to me.
But thinking upon this I come away with a willingness to let historical fiction characters not shoo away flocks of nuisance pigeons on their stroll through Regency London. They can even stop to feed pigeons if they want to.
Apparently pigeons were queuing up for bird seed in Trafalgar Square as early as 1830.
So it's all good.
And you? Do you feed wild animals? Bird feeders? Squirrel feeders? Water for the neighborhood coyote?