Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Who has information about "pigeons"?

Who has information about "pigeons"?

The origin of pigeons

Pigeons and pigeon species, birds, pigeons, pigeons, hatcheries, vertebrates.

Pigeons are also called domestic pigeons and carrier pigeons, and their ancestors are wild pigeons. As early as tens of thousands of years ago, wild pigeons flew around in droves, nesting, inhabiting and reproducing in dangerous rocks, caves and cliffs along the coast. Pigeons have an instinctive desire to love their nests, strong homing ability and the ability to forage in the wild, which has long been recognized by human beings, so people have never consciously raised pigeons as poultry. According to relevant historical records, as early as 5,000 years ago, Egypt and Greeks domesticated wild pigeons into domestic pigeons.

Around 3000 BC, Egyptians began to send letters by pigeons. According to Darwin, a famous British biologist, in his book The Origin of Species, pigeons were domesticated in Egypt in the fifth dynasty around 2000 BC. In BC 1600, the elite in India loved to keep pigeons. They kept more than 20,000 pigeons in the court. By more than 65,438+0,000 BC, Egyptians had begun to hold open pigeon racing competitions. The nobles took pleasure in raising pigeons and even used them as funerary objects. By the year 200, Palestinians had raised pigeons widely, and later spread them to Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Asian and African countries.

China is also an ancient country with a long history of raising pigeons. According to Yue Jue Shu, "There are pale pigeons in Shu, like spring flowers". From the silk book Xiang Ma Jing unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Xiang Ma Yan pointed out that "the desire is like a pigeon, and the pigeon's eyes are colorful". According to the tone of Chu in silk, pigeons with different eyes and colors have been found in southern China during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the imperial court and the people were fascinated by the breeding and management of pigeons.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, pigeons began to be used for communication in Guangzhou and other places in the south of China. In the history of the Tang Dynasty, it was pointed out that "ships in the South China Sea, foreign ships, go to Annan and Guangzhou every year ... After they are launched, they must raise white doves at sea. When the boat is built, pigeons can come back even thousands of miles away. " This shows that Chinese and foreign working people at sea have sent letters to their families to report their safety through carrier pigeons. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the fashion of keeping pigeons was very popular. At that time, in Hangzhou, pigeons were raised for fun, and wind chimes were tied to their legs. Hundreds of pigeons flew in groups, looking forward to it, and the wind was ringing, as loud as a cloud. At that time, not only folk pigeons were good, but the royal family was no exception. Zhang Jiuling, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, once raised a flock of pigeons in his hometown of Lingnan and used them to deliver letters to his family. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Zhao Gou was even obsessed with raising pigeons and didn't even care about politics. Therefore, someone once wrote a doggerel, such as "Ancient Hanging Miscellanies", which said: "Ten thousand pigeons fly around the Imperial City, and they should be released at dusk; If geese are raised by the clouds, can two sacred books be laid in the desert? "

During the Ming Dynasty, pigeon breeding in China had reached a considerable level. According to "The Pigeon", during the orthodox period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a heavy rain in Huaiyang one day, and the pigeon landed on the owner's house, which made the owner very sleepy. After being caught, I was about to kill and eat, and I saw a letter wrapped in oil paper on my foot. Look at the inscription on the cover and know that the pigeon has only been in Beijing for three days. As can be seen from this record, it took only three days to travel from Huaiyang to Shi Jing, with an empty journey of more than 700 kilometers, which shows the competition level of homing pigeons at that time. By the Qing Dynasty, pigeon breeding was more prosperous. At this time, China introduced a large number of excellent pigeon varieties from abroad. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, there were many people who stood pigeons, ranging from dozens to hundreds, whether they were dignitaries, children of the Eight Banners, pawns, vendors and old urchins. Pigeonkeepers at this time love to guard pigeons. People can not only see pigeons flying in the blue sky, but also enjoy wonderful space music.

Pigeon is an ordinary bird. Birds, pigeons and pigeons widely raised all over the world. Wide wings, good at flying. Feathers are raindrops, gray, black, crimson and white. Short feet, short mouth. Seeds of cereal plants. The crops are developed, and the female pigeons can secrete "pigeon milk" to feed their young pigeons during the breeding period, which is a late bird. Spouses are basically fixed for life and lay 5-8 pairs of eggs a year.

Because of people's preference for pigeons and the particularity of breeding purposes, we have specially listed a column for them. Classification of pigeons-pigeon species, birds, pigeon family, pigeons, incubators, vertebrates.

Pigeons are also called domestic pigeons and carrier pigeons, and their ancestors are wild pigeons. As early as tens of thousands of years ago, wild pigeons flew around in droves, nesting, inhabiting and reproducing in dangerous rocks, caves and cliffs along the coast. Pigeons have an instinctive desire to love their nests, strong homing ability and the ability to forage in the wild, which has long been recognized by human beings, so people have never consciously raised pigeons as poultry. According to relevant historical records, as early as 5,000 years ago, Egypt and Greeks domesticated wild pigeons into domestic pigeons. After years of cultivation and optimization, domestic pigeons have multiplied into today's racing pigeons, commonly known as carrier pigeons.

/index9.htm

Classification of birds

Classification is mainly to determine the genetic relationship between bird species. For example, the relationship between pigeons and turtledoves is definitely closer than that between pigeons and sparrows or turtledoves and sparrows. Therefore, taxonomists have formulated a set of classification standards, namely, boundary, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. If we take the sparrow as an example, its classification level is as follows:

Kingdom. (Animal Kingdom)

The phylum ... (Vertebrate phylum)

Class ... (Birds)

Order. ...... finches

Family. ..... (Oncidae)

Genus. ...... (sparrow)

Species. (sparrow)

So every bird can determine which order, which family and which genus it is according to the above examples. And its genetic relationship, species is closer than genus, genus is closer than family, and so on. But what basis do we use to formulate classification standards? The most important thing is according to the shape (such as the shape of the mouth, the arrangement of feathers, the scales of the feet ...). However, in recent years, it has become a trend to take cytogenetics and protein as classification criteria. According to the above morphological classification results, there are more than 9000 species of birds in 27 orders 173 families.

Fourth, the feathers and flight of birds.

Feather is a unique feature of birds. Birds cannot fly without feathers. In addition to the flying feathers born on the forearm, birds have some other feathers, such as body feathers, downy feathers, semi-downy feathers, fine feathers and bristles (whiskers) (Figure 2). These feathers have their own functions, such as covering the body surface with feathers to form a tight protective layer to keep the bird streamlined for flight. Down has the function of keeping warm, which is most common in ducks. The most noteworthy is the flying feather, which is light and elastic. There are many feather hooks on the feather sheet, which are hooked with each other. When feathers split, birds

As long as you dial it with your mouth, it will return to its original state, unlike the bat's wing membrane, which is difficult to return to its original state, so it is of great help to the flight of birds.

In addition to the function of flying, feathers can also protect birds' thin and fragile skin, regulate their body temperature and transmit information through the color of feathers.

People's clothes are worn out or worn out, and they always need new clothes, so are birds. The average bird molts twice a year to ensure the function of its feathers. In addition to molting, birds usually pay great attention to the maintenance of feathers. They have bathing, sunbathing, sand bathing, ant bathing, oiling and dusting. Ant bath is that some birds (about 200 species) will let ants climb on their bodies and use formic acid secreted by ants to help eliminate insects. Oiling is that most birds have a gland, which is tail-shaped and secretes oil. Birds often scrape with their mouths and then smear all over their bodies.

To waterproof effect (such as ducks). In addition, some birds (such as egrets), the tips of their feathers will be broken into very small particles, which are called powder dyed feathers. Powder jade can isolate some dirt (such as fish mucus) when applied to birds.

The flight focus of birds is the structure of forearm feathers. The first flight feather is like the propeller of an airplane, which generates propulsion, and the second flight feather is like the wing, which generates lift (Figure 3), and the tail feather acts as a rudder. Gliding, soaring and flapping-wing flight are common flight modes of birds. Large birds, such as eagles or seabirds, often use the difference of updraft or sea gust to fly in circles (Figure 4), while some small birds often flap their wings to fly. Therefore, the shape of birds' wings has changed greatly (Figure 5), which mainly evolved to adapt to flight.

Five, the physiological structure of birds

In order to adapt to the life in the air, great changes have taken place in the bones of birds, that is, they are developing in the direction of "lightness" and "therapy". Birds' bones account for only about 5% of their weight, while human bones account for 20% of their weight. Birds' bones are mostly hollow, with thin bone fragments, and there are oblique small bone beams in the hollow, which can strengthen the weak bone fragments (Figure 6). In addition, the bones are integrated (healed), which reduces unnecessary movable joints, shifts the center of gravity down, and plays a balance role in flight. However, in order to make up for the inflexibility of the body (lack of joints), the neck of birds is particularly flexible and longer than that of other vertebrates. Swan has 25 cervical vertebrae, and the smallest hummingbird has 8, which is more than 7 for mammals. In addition, the bird's cervical vertebra structure is very special, and the owl's head can rotate to 270 degrees.

In addition to the changes in bones, birds' arms suddenly disappear and their rectum becomes shorter, so they will not store urine and feces, and they will be discharged as soon as they have urine and feces. However, the ovaries and fallopian tubes on the right side of the female bird have degenerated, while the testicles of the male bird have shrunk during the non-reproductive period, all of which are for reducing weight and facilitating flight adaptation.

In terms of muscles, the pectoral muscles of birds are very developed. The pectoral muscle is the main power source of flapping-wing flight. Attached to the keel process (Figure 7), its weight accounts for more than 1/5- 1/3 of the total weight of birds. If a sparrow is converted into the same weight as a human, its pectoral muscles can produce 3 horsepower, while human pectoral muscles can only produce 1/8 horsepower, so there is.

There is a kind of migratory bird called golden walking bird. It travels between the Aleutian Islands and the Hawaiian Islands near the North Pole in spring and autumn every year. The linear distance between the two places is about 3000 kilometers. It flies at a speed of about 90 kilometers per hour for 35 hours without rest. How is this amazing flying power achieved? This relates to its respiratory efficiency. The respiratory system of birds has a so-called balloon structure (mostly nine), which is not only distributed between internal organs, but sometimes goes deep into bones (Figure 8). When birds breathe, the front and rear airbags are like water pumps, which make the gas flow in the same direction, unlike the bidirectional flow of mammals (Figure 9), so fresh air will always enter the lungs, so the breathing efficiency is greatly improved, which is quite beneficial to flight.

In addition to assisting breathing, airbags can also reduce visceral friction, reduce weight, facilitate flight, regulate body temperature (birds have no sweat glands, and waste heat mountain breathing regulation), and in waterfowl, they can also increase buoyancy.

Sensory aspect, birds have the most developed vision. Some large eagle eagles have bigger eyeballs than humans, and it is estimated that their eyesight is more than three times higher than that of humans. In terms of vision, except for some carnivorous eagles and owls, most birds have a very wide field of vision. Take the pigeon as an example. It has a field of vision of about 300 degrees. There is a bird called a woodcock. Its field of vision is as high as 360 degrees, that is, it can see predators attacking from front to back. But these birds with wide vision, unlike eagles and owls, only focus on the front (about 70 degrees), which is very helpful for preying on prey because of their overlapping eyes. This difference in vision is mainly due to the position of birds' eyes on their heads. Generally, birds are on both sides of the head, while eagles and owls are concentrated in front.

Birds have very sensitive hearing and can distinguish notes that humans can't distinguish. In terms of taste, birds have few taste buds (less than 1000), while humans have about 10000, so birds have no taste when eating. Except for a few species, the sense of smell and touch are not very sensitive.

Toes, claws and claws are also very different among birds (Figure 1 1). For example, African ostriches have only two toes and are suitable for running. Ducks have a pu between their toes, which is suitable for paddling. If they fall from the air into the water, they can also be used as brakes. Eagles often catch prey with their claws. These variations are nothing more than to adapt to changes in habitats.

Under the long-term evolution, birds have various beak shapes (Figure 12), which are suitable for preying on various foods. Like a vulture's hook mouth, it is conducive to shredding prey; Like a sparrow's mouth, it is suitable for crushing seeds; Parrots can dig pulp at the tip of their mouths and bite seeds at the base of their mouths. Such varied feeding habits make birds occupy a very important position in the natural food web. In addition to the change of mouth shape, birds' tongues are also diverse. Woodpecker's tongue can be elongated, with barbs and sticky quilts at the end, which can reach into tree holes to hook insects; Penguins have horny hooks behind their tongues, which can firmly hook the swallowed food; Some hummingbirds can stretch their tongues and roll them into tubes to suck nectar.

Six, the mystery of bird migration.

Animals travel between two places periodically, which is called migration. In the animal kingdom, some insects, fish, reptiles (such as turtles), birds and mammals (such as whales and bats) have migration habits. Among them, the migration of birds is the most striking. It is estimated that billions of birds have participated in migration activities all over the world. Such a large number of birds travel between the breeding ground and the wintering ground in spring and autumn every year, and their behavior has caused long-term research by ornithologists. But some birds do not have the habit of migration, which we call resident birds; Birds with migratory habits are called migratory birds. Migratory birds can be subdivided into winter migratory birds, summer migratory birds and transit birds. For example, in Taiwan Province Province, they are defined as follows:

Residents: Stay in the breeding ground all the year round, do not migrate, and sometimes just wander for a short distance.

Winter migratory birds: breed in northern countries and spend the winter in Taiwan Province province.

Summer migratory birds: They breed in Taiwan Province Province in summer and go south to avoid the cold in winter.

Transit bird: It is only found in the migration period in spring and autumn, and does not breed or overwinter in Taiwan Province Province.

However, this is not an absolute division. Some kinds of birds often have multiple identities in an area. For example, there is a kind of bird called Oriental Ring-necked Walking Bird. In summer, a flock breeds in Taiwan Province, and in winter, a flock comes from the north for the winter. So he has different identities, summer migratory birds or resident birds (because I don't know if the breeding group has gone to the south for the winter) and winter migratory birds. Of course, some bird species are easy to judge, such as sparrows, which are out-and-out residents.

Migratory birds generally migrate along fixed routes (mostly north-south, a few east-west). If migratory birds fly off their own routes and flee to other routes, we call them "wandering birds". There is little chance of seeing this kind of bird occasionally.

Most migratory birds travel in the northern and southern hemispheres, and some of them fly thousands of kilometers. The most famous bird is Yanhe River in the Arctic of Sichuan, with a one-way migration distance of about 18000 km. It flies from the North Pole (breeding ground) to the South Pole (wintering ground) repeatedly every year, and the South Pole flies back to the North Pole.

Why are Arctic cranes so tired? They don't have a compass to help them fly, so how do they know the right direction of their destination? These two problems deeply puzzle ornithologists and are still under discussion.

According to the existing research, why do migratory birds migrate? There are three factors (but not absolutely correct). One is ecological factors, the other is physiological factors, and the third is historical factors.

Ecological factors: The higher the latitude, the more migratory birds there are in summer, and the fewer resident birds there are. Someone has done research. In Yunnan Province of China (2 1 ~ 29 degrees north latitude), 70% are resident birds and 30% are migratory birds. In Changbai Mountain area of Northeast China (42 ~ 44 degrees north latitude), resident birds only account for 18.8%, and migratory birds account for 810.2%. This difference is mainly caused by ecological factors. The extreme cold in winter in the north urges birds to migrate to the south; In summer, there are long sunshine hours, abundant food and few natural enemies (such as snakes) in the north, so migratory birds fly back to the north to breed.

Physiological factors: When spring comes, the sunshine becomes longer, which stimulates endocrine glands and promotes gonadal expansion, so migratory birds migrate northward. Someone has done experiments. In spring, the migratory ability of migratory birds is inhibited by injecting preparations that inhibit endocrine glands.

Historical factors: the earth has experienced many glacial attacks and retreats. Glaciers come and the temperature drops. When the glacier retreats, the temperature will rise again. Birds advance and retreat with glaciers, so they form the habit of migration.

Ornithologists have made many observations and experiments on how migratory birds never get lost in long-distance flights. Among them, the sun, stars and the earth's magnetic field are the main basis for the positioning of migratory birds.

According to experiments, during the migration season, when birds are kept in experimental cages and the angle of sunlight is changed, migratory birds also change their orientation with the change of the angle of sunlight, from which we know that some migratory birds are oriented by the sun. In addition, some birds (birds) migrate mainly at night. They can't locate themselves by the sun, but they locate themselves by the stars. The experimenter rotates the artificial starry sky in the astrology hall, and some experimental bird species also change their migration direction with the rotation direction of the stars. This change of direction proves that migratory birds migrating at night are oriented by stars. Some successful experiments have been done on the earth's magnetic field, and there is considerable evidence that geomagnetism is also the basis for the orientation of migratory birds. In addition, the theories and theories of wind orientation, smell orientation and hearing orientation are still in the experimental discussion stage.

Seven. Bird distribution

There are more than 9,000 species of birds in the world, and their distribution around the world is uneven, which can be roughly divided into two types: terrestrial geographical distribution and ecological distribution. The geographical distribution of land can be divided into six bird geographical regions (Figure 13), and each region has its own bird distribution characteristics.

Now briefly described as follows:

1. Palaearctic boundary

Birds in this world are mostly migratory birds, with geese, ducks and insect-eating birds the most. There are about 750 species of breeding birds in 69 families, and only one family is endemic (not distributed in other circles), which is close to the New Taipei boundary.

2. The new northern border

There are not many kinds of birds in this world. Like Palaearctic realm, most of them are migratory birds, but the climate and natural ecological environment are similar to Palaearctic realm. There are about 52 families and 650 species of breeding birds in the world, and there are no endemic families.

3. The Eastern World

There are many islands in the world, mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. There are more and more birds eating fruit. There are about 83 families 1500 breeding birds, and only one family is endemic, close to the old tropical world.

4. Old tropical world

There are more stray birds and seed-eating birds in this world, but fewer waterbirds. There are about 67 families 1900 breeding birds, and 8 families are endemic.

5. Australia

Because the world is isolated from the mainland, the species of independently evolved birds are very rich, and there are many birds in habitats, about 82 families 1200 species of breeding birds, of which 14 family is endemic.

6. The New Tropical World

The world is called "Bird Island", and there are many primitive bird species, mainly fruit-based birds. There are about 97 families, 2900 species of breeding birds and 32 endemic families, which are the highest in the Sixth World.

In addition to the six geographical regions of birds mentioned above, there is also ecological distribution, which is also uneven due to the influence of natural environment (such as climate, topography, ocean, altitude and latitude differences) and biological factors.

Eight, the relationship between birds and humans

Since human beings appeared on the world stage, they have maintained a close relationship with birds. Our ancestors often lived in peace with birds under the power of fearing nature, and even regarded some birds as gods. Ancient murals, literature and art have always maintained a close relationship with birds, enriching the lives of our ancestors and benefiting from them to this day. Moreover, some birds have also been domesticated into poultry, providing a large number of animal protein sources needed by human beings. Birds' feathers, eggs and bird droppings are also widely used. This close partnership has deteriorated to modern times. Due to the rapid increase of population (13.7 billion in the world in 970,15 billion in 986 and 6 billion in 2000), the demand for land is increasing, so human beings occupy a lot of natural land, completely ignoring the survival of birds and other creatures, and the pollution is becoming more and more serious. According to statistics, 97 species of birds may have been extinct since 1600 BC. For example, the extinction rate of biological evolution is 10 thousand times that of natural evolution, which is very terrible.

In fact, only the extinction of dinosaurs is comparable, and now there are more than 1000 species of birds facing serious threats (it is estimated that if two species of birds are extinct, at the same time, one mammal, four fish, 70 plants and 180 species of insects will disappear). This is entirely due to the excessive plunder of nature by human beings.

Nine, birds are the best ecological indicators

It is an indisputable fact that birds play a balanced role in nature. When some animals in nature (such as insects and mice) multiply in large numbers and endanger the ecology, they are often put out by birds. Besides the above facts, birds are also the best ecological indicators. In A.D. 1960, scientists were very alarmed when they found that the eggs in Ying Chao were broken or deformed. After follow-up investigation, it was found that DDT pollution was the cause, so the use of this pesticide was completely banned to avoid harm to human beings. 1969, 17000 seabirds died mysteriously in Ireland. After verification, most of them are caused by PCBs, so the use of PCBs is strictly restricted. And the list goes on. If there is no timely warning from birds, the harm will be even greater.

Today's birds. Tomorrow's mankind

Birds are loyal friends of human beings, an indispensable part of nature and a detector of the environment. If humans don't cherish them and let them go extinct, they will eventually harm themselves. So we solemnly appeal: "Saving birds is saving mankind. 」