Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!allender From: allender@aramis.rutgers.edu (Eric Allender) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: superpigeon Keywords: rock dove, foghorn leghorn Message-ID: Date: 4 Jan 89 19:47:19 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 28 My wife and I maintain a birdfeeder in our back yard, and we get quite a few nice birds -- but we also get some "junk" birds like house sparrows, starlings, and (yeuchhh) rock doves. Usually, I try to ignore the rock doves, but one recent visitor is really remarkable. He is fully 30% larger than the other pigeons, and his legs and feet are covered with fluffy, big, white feathers. He almost looks like he has leggings and snow shoes on! What is he??? Is he somebody's escaped exotic pet pigeon -- some sort of special breed? (I know that some people keep pigeons -- although it's always been beyond me why anybody would want to.) Is he a chimera which escaped from a nearby genetics lab? Is he the first New Jersey sighting of an Andalusian Cock Dove (probably blown across the sea by a hurricane)? Is he a mutant? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. -- Eric Allender