The sun was not much over the horizon when a half dozen pigeons saw me outside the back door and came hoping for a feed. We actually don't like the pigeons very much and try not to encourage them, though we aren't usually impolite to them.

A friend pointed out that they are smart birds and I agree, sorta. Their smarts are not the wily street-lawyer smarts of the bluejays and the crows. Instead they have the smarts of a seasoned and obsequious royal courtier.

No matter what their brain is good for, they are pretty birds. I expect that, just like the prettiness, the obsequity was bred into them by centuries of contact with and reliance on human beings.