Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World [Hardcover]

Courtney Humphries (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2008

Why do we see pigeons as lowly urban pests and how did they become such common city dwellers? Courtney Humphries traces the natural history of the pigeon, recounting how these shy birds that once made their homes on the sparse cliffs of sea coasts came to dominate our urban public spaces. While detailing this evolution, Humphries introduces us to synanthropy: The concept that animals can become dependent on humans without ceasing to be wild; they can adapt to the cityscape as if it were a field or a forest.

Superdove simultaneously explores the pigeon's cultural transformation, from its life in the dovecotes of ancient Egypt to its service in the trenches of World War I, to its feats within the pigeon-racing societies of today. While the dove is traditionally recognized as a symbol of peace, the pigeon has long inspired a different sort of fetishistic devotion from breeders, eaters, and artists—and from those who recognized and exploited the pigeon's astounding abilities. Because of their fecundity, pigeons were symbols of fertility associated with Aphrodite, while their keen ability to find their way home made them ideal messengers and even pilots.

Their usefulness largely forgotten, today's pigeons have become as ubiquitous and reviled as rats. But Superdove reveals something more surprising: By using pigeons for our own purposes, we humans have changed their evolution. And in doing so, we have helped make pigeons the ideal city dwellers they are today. In the tradition of Rats, the book that made its namesake rodents famous, Superdove is the fascinating story of the pigeon's journey from the wild to the city—the home they'll never leave.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Social insects such as ants have long fascinated renowned biologist Wilson. With colleague Hölldobler, he presents this integrated look at social insects, from the genetic to the colony levels of analysis. Incorporating the evolutionary record into the text, the authors alert readers to the relentlessness of environmental pressures on everything that an insect is or does. The authors particularly theorize the adaptive advantages of a species whose members exist as part of a social organization, which emerges in their discussions of preconditions necessary for a transition from an individual to a communal life-cycle. This transition is rare in nature; adding to the amazement is the complexity of insect colonies, to which the authors devote most of their generously illustrated work. Divining how social insects divide into castes of workers, soldiers, and queens; explaining how castes communicate; and placing these successful species within the larger web of life, Wilson and Hölldobler, albeit fond of technical nomenclature, bring an alienlike world to the notice of interested nonscientists, in a volume with long-term library value. --Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Accessible and well-researched account” (New Scientist )

“Humphries follows the pigeon’s development as a game bird, a cheap food source, a highlyprized messenger service, and ultimately, a modern-day pest...Humphries succeeds in examining something everyone takes for granted, and proving that it’s worthy of a second look.” (The Onion )

“Humphries makes us care about the lowly urban pigeon.” (Booklist )

“Enteratining and thorough account of the bird’s colorful history.” (Audobon Magazine )

“A cultural, historical, and biological study of the timeless human-pigeon relationship...giving meaning to a species you once saw as dirty and dull--if you saw them at all.” (New York Observer )

“In prose as clear as water [Courtney Humphries] writes a compelling story of how pigeons conquered the world, while threading in history, anecdotes, and even the way that the birds we now consider a nusance helped Darwin create the theory of evolution.” (David Gessner, author of Return of the Osprey and Sick of Nature )

“A fascinating biography.” (SEED Magazine )

“Superdove is one of the best natural history reads I’ve had in years.” (Ted Kerasote, author of MERLE'S DOOR: LESSONS FROM A FREETHINKING DOG )

“Smart and affectionate all at once, that sheds light on how one animal’s “nature” can be another’s Fifth Avenue. Reading it is simply a delight.” (Robert Kanigel, Director, Graduate Program in Science Writing , MIT )

“A first-person blend of science and culture.” (USA Today )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian; 1st ed edition (August 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061259160
• ISBN-13: 978-0061259166
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a writer specializing in articles and books about science, medicine, health, nature, and the environment.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fascinating history, biology, and anthropology of a bird and an eloquent, humorous, thoughtful book, August 26, 2008

By 

T. Kelleher (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World (Hardcover)

An evolving animal takes whatever it can get and runs with it. For the rock dove, it was us, and our civilization. First kept for food some 3000 years ago, the pigeon has escaped the fate of the chicken or the cow, animals that wouldn't last long without us. The pigeon has made us and our creations its environment--feeding in our fields and at our hands, roosting on our buildings--just as a lion does the savannas of Africa. Courtney Humphries' excellent first book reveals a writer with talent and brains and a very humane touch, able to treat the follies, failings, and successes of humans as deftly as she does the successes of science; the chapters on the BF Skinner, pigeon racers, and "pigeon people" are among the best studies of humans you'll ever read. The pigeon might be so commonplace that they escape our notice, but authors like Humphries and books like _Superdove_ are among the rarest literary treasures, and we ought to cherish them.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars answers a lot of questions, September 14, 2008

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Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World (Hardcover)

I've always thought pigeons were pretty amazing; as the author points out, they are "able to make a natural habitat out of areas that seem hostile to animal life" and thus "bring a bit of nature back into cities." This book answers a variety of questions, including:

1 . Where do pigeons come from, anyway? They are descendants of rock doves that nested in the cliffs of southern Europe and the Middle East. Eventually, pigeons were domesticated by being lured into dovecotes, essentially being given free food and shelter, and being used for message-sending due to their homing instinct (that is, their instinct to come home). Today's urban pigeons are feral rather than wild- that is, they are descendants of these domesticated pigeons.
2. Why are pigeons so comfortable in cities? First, habitat. The windows, porches and ledges of cities are similar (in a pigeon's eyes) to their native cliffs. Second, food. Humans tend to eat (and throw away) a lot of grain-based food- by coincidence the perfect pigeon diet. Third, because urban pigeons are descendants of domesticated ones, they have been bred to be less skittish around humans than some wild birds.
3. Why don't we eat more pigeons? Although pigeons breed rapidly enough to survive (and occasionally be eaten though usually as "squab") they don't breed nearly as rapidly as chickens. A hen can lay 200 eggs a year; pigeons are much less productive and waste valuable egg-laying time nurturing their young, since pigeon young are much more dependent on their parents than chicks. Thus, a farmer simply cannot churn out as many pigeons as chickens.
4. How smart are pigeons? In some ways, not so much. They have small brains, and don't solve puzzles or use tools. On the other hand, a well-trained pigeon can recall hundreds or thousands of images for years, and pigeons can even be trained to do assembly-line pecking due to their high tolerance for boredom.
5. Why might a city rationally want to discourage humans feeding pigeons? The issue (at least in cities where people have thought intelligently about the issue,) is less disease than overpopulation. Some scientists worry that if humans feed pigeons too much, it becomes easier for pigeons to breed, thus causing overpopulation and maybe a mass die-off. (I'm not sure whether this argument really makes sense, and I didn't get the impression that the author was trying to independently evaluate it herself).

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Differing Aspects of a Unique Bird, September 16, 2008

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World (Hardcover)

In _Stardust Memories_ of 1980, Woody Allen memorably called pigeons "rats with wings", summarizing how many urban dwellers think of them. Every city has pigeons, and this is just as much because of human nature as pigeon nature. In _Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan... and the World_ (Smithsonian Books), Courtney Humphries has presented a comprehensive look at this common bird (some would, of course, say common pest), but unlike a typical ornithological evaluation, this has to take in not just the natural history and evolution of the bird, but also the geography, history, and culture of the humans who have invited it to live in cities and indeed have shaped it to be able to do so. It's not the sort of bird you'd expect to see in, for instance, a special on the Nature Channel. "The pigeon is not the smartest bird, Humphries says, "nor the fastest, nor the prettiest, and it is certainly not the rarest. But it is capable of so much. More specialized birds might illustrate the limits of evolution, but pigeons show us its breadth." Pigeons show a widespread competence, rather than exploiting specialized expertise, and their interactions with us show a lot about human nature.

Pigeons are also called rock doves (and have recently been officially denominated "rock pigeons"), and indeed there is essentially no species difference between a dove and a pigeon. There are so many forms of pigeon because they were domesticated around five thousand years ago, probably the first domesticated birds. The birds were kept as a food source in dovecotes, and so began their long history of exploiting a niche in between full domestication and life in the wild. Pigeons also were used as messengers, and the capacity of pigeons to return to their homes has been the subject of biological investigation for decades; it seems that they can use sun position, smells, and visual cues, as well as being able to sense magnetic forces. The other way people use pigeons is for show. Careful breeding has developed birds that look vastly different from one another in color, posture, neck or tail feathers, and more. Pigeons were one of the many subjects Darwin pushed himself to find out about. Everyone knows that Darwin's finches from Galapagos are an important illustration of evolution, but not everyone realizes that pigeons played an even more important role. Darwin devoted the first chapter of the _Origin_ to pigeons because he saw that what human pigeon fanciers were doing with relative speed to their generations of pigeons, nature had done slowly with all animals and plants. It was a wonderful metaphor, easy to understand and vivid.

Humphries is a gifted writer, documenting with zest and humor her visits with world-wide experts on different aspects of this multifaceted bird, including ornithologists who are inspired by studying a bird that has changed so much through its long association with humans and other ornithologists who say such study is useless because the bird is so unnatural. She knows what to do about cities overpopulated with the birds, or at least she has talked to experts who have had success at reducing their cities' pigeon population. Every city is different, but, for instance, when Basel, Switzerland, realized that its pigeons were getting almost all their food from a small number of people who liked feeding them, it took action, not directly against the pigeons or against their feeders, but against the damage such feeders might do. "Feeding pigeons is animal cruelty," went out the message, enforcing the idea that unnatural feeding was swelling the population to unnatural limits. It worked; the pigeon population dropped from 24,000 to 8,000. _Superdove_ is also significant as a documentation of Humphries's own transformation from someone who took the birds for granted, but gradually found that they formed a huge world of history and research. It was generous of her to let us join her on the trip.