Common street pigeons are descended from Rock Doves,
and have substituted urban structures for the ancestral rocky cliffs.
The Rock Dove is also the forebear of aristocrats such as homing
pigeons or racers, Tumblers or Rollers (who somersault in the air),
pigeons with distinctive voices (Trumpeters and Laughers), and birds
bred for beautiful or unusual feather patterns and colors.
Mme Knip, a gifted disciple of the illustrious French
bird painter Jacques Barraband, portrayed this elegant bird, and
many others, in Les pigeons. C. J. Temminck, a leading naturalist
of the period, wrote the text, and both he and Mme Knip claimed
author credit for this and the second (1838–43) editions of Les
pigeons. Scholars still debate the details of this bitter controversy,
leaning most recently toward the opinion that Mme Knip did indeed
"steal" the authorship.
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