Another Friendly Pigeon

Forest and Bird, Issue 105, 1 August 1952, Page 12

Another Friendly Pigeon

K4"R. HAMMOND also caps the “Friendly Pigeon” story in our last issue with another. “We had a very stormy and wet night, and next morning we found on the roadside a native pigeon, in an apparently dying state, wet through and unable to move. We managed to get some warm honey water down its throat, wrapped it in warm flannel, and placed it near the fire. In about 2 hours it had revived and ate some cotoneaster berries. On the following day it was quite lively and made itself at home on the back of a chair. We got more berries from the bush and its appetite seemed hard to satisfy. One morning it was perched behind me as I sat at the breakfast table. I had almost finished a cup of tea when the pigeon fluttered on to the table and sipped the remainder of the sweetened tea. “We gave the bird full liberty outside. It rested on a post beside the lawn. It/ would flutter from the post on to my shoulder, then fly to the ground and sip dew from the grass then fly back to the post. It was not at all afraid of visitors, but would perch on their fingers and allow them to stroke it. It became quite fond of berries from the African box thorn. When I was confined to my bed, suffering from a cold, the pigeon walked up and down on the window sill, then flew away and we saw no more of it.”