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    Unavailable
    Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World
    Unavailable
    Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World
    Unavailable
    Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World
    Ebook259 pages6 hours

    Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World

    By Courtney Humphries

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061873461
    Unavailable
    Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan ... And the World

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    Reviews for Superdove

    3.5/5

    23 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Fairly decent book about the lives of feral pigeon populations around the world and how different cities cope with these birds in some alternative ways. You will be able to see some of the authors own biases come through that actually don't have anything to do with these pigeons. It was hard to stay interested in the material.
    • 5/5
      I enjoy "micro-histories", and one look at that tough pigeon on the cover of this book and I was hooked.Courtney Humphries has created a fascinating look at the pigeon. I was especially interested to learn that they "date" for a period of days before mating. There was a discussion of why we never see baby pigeons, "pigeon mothers" (older women -- mostly -- who feed pigeons and how this makes a huge difference to the bird population in a given area), several tests to try to learn how pigeons find their way home, and a lot more. Fascinating.
    • 4/5
      As a sometime New Yorker, I have a long-standing relationship with the pigeon. In my last apartment in Queens, a family of pigeons had even nested in the airshaft of my building, using my air conditioner as a ledge upon which to build the ultimate pigeon suburban home. I've also had pigeon poo rain on me from above, so I like to think that I've seen a pretty wide spectrum of pigeon behavior. Still, it never occurred to me that there was a whole history behind these less-than-majestic creatures until a non-fiction history of the pigeon entered my life and changed my whole perspective on my winged neighbors.Ms. Humphries' book took a somewhat different tack than my first pigeon book, choosing to focus on the science of the pigeon a bit more, and the fancying of the pigeon somewhat less. For someone looking to get a more zoological perspective, I suspect that this would be appreciated but for me, non-science person that I am, it was a bit disappointing. This is not to say that the science was not well-written. In fact, Ms. Humphries did an excellent job of making the connections between her pigeon-subjects and her scientific observations understandable, and I quite enjoyed her discussion of Darwin and his unexpected development of love for the pigeon. She also explained how pigeons relate to doves, how feral pigeons relate to wild pigeons, and how we interact with pigeons in our cities. It is, in fact, an expansive book, containing a rather vast quantity of data in a mere 272 pages.This very vastness was actually one of my mild quibbles though, since it sometimes felt like Ms. Humphries was taking me on a whirlwind tour of the pigeon world and didn't want to leave anything out, even in the interest of time. For me, it would have been nice if she had gone a little bit more in-depth with some of her topics (like the Pigeon People and their movements), even if that meant leaving something else out. At times the book was also very funny, and I found myself wishing she had let that humor loose a bit more often, since I felt that it only added to the book.Ultimately, Superdove would be an excellent book for someone looking to get a basic overview of pigeons in the context of their relationship with humans in the modern world. The history prior to the modern era was fairly brief but she did provide a chapter-by-chapter bibliography for any budding ornithologists. Also, any New Yorker (or resident of any other major city, really- the pigeon poo first struck me in Florence, Italy) might find themselves feeling a bit more benevolent towards our "rats with wings" after learning a bit more about the lowly, yet quite fascinating (and delicious), pigeon.