By Dhan Gopal Mukerji

T he city of Calcutta, which boasts of a million people, must have at least two million pigeons. Every third Hindu boy has perhaps a dozen pet carriers, tumblers, fantails and pouters. The art of domesticating pigeons goes back thousands of years in India, and she has contributed two species of pigeons as a special product of her bird fanciers, the fantail and the pouter. Love and care have been showered on pigeons for centuries by emperors, princes and queens in their marble palaces, as w ell as by the poor, in their humble homes. The gardens, grottos1. grotto: （人工開挖用以避暑的）洞室。and fountains of the Indian rich—the small f ield of f lowers and fruits of the common folk, each has its ornament and music, —many-coloured pigeons and cooing w hite doves w ith ruby eyes.

Even now, any winter morning, foreigners who visit our big cities may see on the f lat-roofed houses innumerable boys waving white f lags as signals to their pet pigeons f lying up in the crisp cold air. Through the blue heavens f locks of the birds soar like vast clouds. They start in small f locks, and spend about twenty minutes circling over the roofs of their owners' homes. Then they slowly ascend, and all the separate groups from different houses of the town merge into one big f lock, and f loat far out of sight. How they ever return to their own homes is a w onder, for all the housetops look alike in shape in spite of their rose, yellow, violet and white colours.

《彩虹鴿》小說封面

But pigeons have an amazing sense of direction and love of their owners. I have yet to see creatures more loyal than pigeons and elephants. I have played with both, and the tusker on four feet in the country, or the bird on two wings in the city, no matter how far they w andered, w ere by their almost infallible instinct brought back to their friend and brother—Man.2. tusker: 有長牙的動物（如象、野豬等）；infallible: 絕對可靠的，肯定有效的。

My elephant friend was called Kari, of whom you have heard before, and the other pet that I knew w ell w as a pigeon. His name w as Chitra-griva; Chitra

meaning “painted in gay colours,” and Griva, “neck”—in one phrase, pigeon Gay-Neck. Sometimes he w as called “Iridescence-throated.”

Of course, Gay-Neck did not come out of his egg with an iridescent throat; he had to grow the feathers week by w eek; and until he w as three months old, there w as very little hope that he would acquire the brilliant collar; but at last, when he did achieve it, he was the most beautiful pigeon in my town in India, and the boys of my town owned forty thousand pigeons.

But I must begin this story at the very beginning. I mean with Gay-Neck's parents. His father was a tumbler who married the most beautiful pigeon of his day; she came from a noble old stock of carriers. That is why Gay-Neck proved himself later such a worthy carrier pigeon in w ar as w ell as in peace. From his mother he inherited w isdom, from his father bravery and alertness. He w as so quick-witted that sometimes he escaped the clutches of a hawk by tumbling at the last moment right over the enemy's head. But of that later, in its proper time and place.

Now let me tell you what a narrow escape3. narrow escape: 九死一生，幸免于難。Gay-Neck had while still in the egg. I shall never forget the day when, through a mistake of mine, I broke one of the two eggs that his mother had laid. It was very stupid of me. I regret it even now. Who know s? Maybe w ith that broken egg perished the f inest pigeon of the w orld. It happened this way. Our house was four stories high—and on its roof was built our pigeon house. A few days after the eggs were laid I decided to clean the pigeonhole in which Gay-Neck's mother was sitting on them. I lifted her gently and put her on the roof beside me. Then I lifted each egg carefully and put it most softly in the next pigeonhole, which, however, had no cotton or f lannel4. f lannel: 法蘭絨。on its hard wooden f loor. Then I busied myself with the task of removing the debris from the birth-nest. As soon as that was done, I brought one egg back and restored it to its proper place. Next I reached for the second one and laid a gentle but f irm hand on it. Just then something fell upon my face like a roof blow n by the storm. It was Gay-Neck's father furiously beating my face with his wings. Worse still, he had placed the claws of one of his feet on my nose. The pain and surprise of it was so great that ere5. ere: 在……之前。I knew how, I had dropped the egg. I was engrossed in beating off the bird from my head and face, and at last he f lew aw ay. But too late: the little egg lay broken in a mess at my feet. I was furious w ith its clumsy father and also with myself. Why with myself? Because I should have been prepared for the father bird's attack. He took me for a stealer of his eggs, and in his ignorance was risking his life to prevent my robbing his nest. May I impress it upon you that you should anticipate all kinds of surprise attacks w hen cleaning a bird's home during nesting season.

But to go on with our story. The mother bird knew the day when she was to break open the egg-shell w ith her ow n beak, in order to usher Gay-Neck into the world. Though the male sits on the egg pretty nearly one-third of the time—for he does that each

day from morning till late afternoon—yet he does not know when the hour of his child's birth is at hand. No one save6. save: 除……外。the mother bird arrives at that divine certainty. We do not yet understand the nature of the unique w ireless message by w hich she learns that w ithin the shell the yolk and the white of her egg have turned into a baby-bird. She also knows how to tap the right spot so that the shell will break open without injuring her child in the slightest. To me that is as good as a miracle.

Gay-Neck's birth happened exactly as I have described. About the twentieth day after the laying of the egg, I noticed that the mother was not sitting on it any more. She pecked the father and drove him away every time he f lew dow n from the roof of the house and volunteered to sit on the egg. Then he cooed, w hich meant, “Why do you send me away?”

She, the mother, just pecked him the more, meaning, “Please go. The business on hand is very serious.”

At that, the father f lew away. That worried me, for I was anxious for the egg to hatch, and was feeling suspicious about its doing it at all. With increased interest and anxiety I w atched the pigeonhole. An hour passed. Nothing happened. It was about the third quarter of the next hour that the mother turned her head one way and listened to something—probably a stirring inside that egg. Then she gave a slight start. I felt as if a tremor were running through her w hole body. With it a great resolution came into her. Now she raised her head, and took aim. In tw o strokes she cracked the egg open, revealing a wee7. wee: 極小的。bird, all beak and a tiny shivering body! Now watch the mother. She is surprised. Was it this that she was expecting all these long days? Oh, how small, how helpless! The moment she realizes her child's helplessness, she covers him up with the soft blue feathers of her breast.

只見母鴿抬起頭，對準(zhǔn)目標(biāo)。她兩下就啄開了鴿蛋，從里面露出了一只小小鳥，整個嘴，還有小小的顫抖的身體！且看母鴿，她非常驚訝。這就是她這么多日來期待的小寶寶嗎？噢，他是多么弱小，多么無助啊！母鴿意識到鴿寶寶的無助時，就用胸前柔軟的藍(lán)色羽毛蓋住了他。

以擁有上百萬人而自豪的加爾各答城，肯定至少有兩百萬只鴿子。每三個印度男孩子大概就會擁有十二只鴿子，比如寵物信鴿、翻頭鴿、扇尾鴿和球胸鴿。在印度，馴鴿的技藝可以追溯到幾千年以前，而印度也給這里的鳥迷們獻上了兩個特殊的鴿子品種——扇尾鴿和球胸鴿。幾百年來，無論是大理石宮殿里的皇帝、王子和皇后，還是寒磣窩棚里的窮苦百姓，都對鴿子關(guān)愛備至。無論是印度富人家的花園、洞室、噴泉，還是普通百姓的花果小田地，各自都有裝飾和音樂，那就是顏色繽紛的彩鴿和咕咕叫的有著紅寶石般眼睛的白鴿。

即使到現(xiàn)在，任何一個冬天的早晨，來到我們大城市的外國人也可能會看到無數(shù)男孩子站在房子的平頂上，揮舞著白色的旗幟，在清冷的空氣中向飛起的愛鴿發(fā)出信號。在藍(lán)天上翱翔而過的鴿群，猶如大片大片的云朵一般。起初鴿子是一小群一小群的，在主人的房頂上空盤旋20分鐘左右。隨后，他們慢慢地飛高，所有來自城里各家的單獨鴿群合并為一大群，越飛越遠(yuǎn)，飛出人們的視野。他們到底是怎樣回家的一直是個謎，因為盡管房頂顏色不同，有玫瑰色、黃色、紫羅蘭色和白色，但所有的房頂形狀看上去都是相似的。

然而，鴿子有一種令人驚嘆的方向感和對主人的愛。我見過的生物中最忠誠的莫過于鴿子和大象。我曾經(jīng)跟這二者為伴，無論是鄉(xiāng)村里的四足長牙動物，還是城市里的雙翼飛鳥，無論他們走多遠(yuǎn)，總能通過自己絕對可靠的本能回到他們的朋友和兄弟——人類——身邊。

我的大象朋友名叫卡里，你們以前可能聽說過他。我熟悉的另一個寵物是一只鴿子。他的名字叫齊特拉-格里瓦；“齊特拉”意思是“用鮮艷顏色畫的”，“格里瓦”意思是“脖頸”，連起來說就是“長著鮮艷顏色脖頸的鴿子”。有時，他被稱為“彩虹頸”。

當(dāng)然，彩虹鴿剛從蛋里出生時并沒有彩虹頸，他必須得經(jīng)過幾個星期才能長出羽毛；直到三個月大的時候，他會擁有鮮亮頸羽的希望還微乎其微；但最后，當(dāng)他真正長出鮮亮頸羽的時候，他就成了印度我那個城里最漂亮的鴿子，我那個城里的男孩子們有四萬只鴿子呢。

不過，我還是從頭開始講述這個故事吧。我是說，從彩虹鴿的父母親講起。他的父親是一只翻頭鴿，娶了當(dāng)時最漂亮的一只母鴿，她出身于一個古老高貴的信鴿家族。這就是彩虹鴿后來能證明自己無論是在戰(zhàn)爭還是和平時期都是相當(dāng)出色的信鴿的原因。他繼承了母親的智慧和父親的勇敢與機敏。彩虹鴿是那樣機智靈敏，有時候在最后時刻會一個筋斗翻到敵人頭部的正上方，逃脫老鷹的魔爪。不過，這一點以后會在適當(dāng)?shù)臅r間和地點再說。

現(xiàn)在，讓我來告訴你彩虹鴿還在蛋里時九死一生的經(jīng)歷。我永遠(yuǎn)都不會忘記那一天，當(dāng)時母鴿生下了兩個蛋，我一時失誤，打破了其中一只。我真是笨到家了，甚至現(xiàn)在還感到后悔。誰知道呢？說不定打破那只蛋就等于扼殺了世界上最出色的一只鴿子。事情是這樣發(fā)生的。我們的房子有四層樓高——房頂上建有鴿巢。母鴿生下兩個蛋的幾天后，我決定清掃一下鴿巢的垃圾。當(dāng)時，母鴿正臥在那兩只蛋上。我輕輕地抱起母鴿，把

她放在我身邊的房頂上。然后我小心翼翼地拿起每個蛋，極其溫柔地放在鄰近的鴿巢里。不過這個鴿巢沒有在硬木地板上鋪棉花或法蘭絨。接下來，我就忙著清理鴿巢里的雜物。一清理完，我就拿著其中一只蛋放回原處。接著，我又伸手拿起另一個蛋，輕輕而又牢牢地握在手里。就在這時，有什么東西落在了我的臉上，就像風(fēng)暴刮過房頂一般。原來是彩虹鴿的父親正怒氣沖沖地用翅膀撲打我的臉。更糟糕的是，他一只爪子抓在了我的鼻子上。既疼痛萬分，又突如其來，以至于我還不知道是怎么回事呢，就把手里的蛋掉在了地上。我全神貫注地拍打公鴿，使他離開我的頭和臉。最后他終于飛走了。但是，一切都太遲了：那個小小的鴿蛋落在我的腳邊，碎成了一攤。我對這只蠢笨的公鴿，也對自己怒不可遏。為什么對自己這樣呢？因為我本該對公鴿的襲擊作好準(zhǔn)備。他以為我是偷蛋賊，就懵懂無知地冒著生命危險來阻止我搶劫他的窩。但愿我能給你留下深刻的印象，就是當(dāng)你在鴿子筑巢孵蛋的季節(jié)清掃鴿巢時，應(yīng)該預(yù)料到各種突然襲擊的發(fā)生。

不過，我們還是接著講故事吧。母鴿知道應(yīng)該在哪天用自己的嘴啄開蛋殼，以便讓彩虹鴿來到這個世界。盡管

公鴿幾乎三分之一的時間都臥在鴿蛋上——因為他每天從早上到傍晚都是如此——但他并不知道雛鴿什么時候?qū)⑵茪ざ?。只有母鴿才確切知道那個神圣的時刻。我們還不明白這種獨特的無線電信號的特性，母鴿就是通過它得知蛋殼內(nèi)的蛋黃和蛋白已經(jīng)變成了鴿寶寶。母鴿也知道如何輕擊準(zhǔn)確的位置，好讓蛋殼破開，而不讓鴿寶寶受到絲毫傷害。在我看來，這簡直就像是奇跡。

彩虹鴿的出生完全像我描述過的那樣。我注意到，大約從下蛋后的第20天起，母鴿就不再伏在鴿蛋上了。每次公鴿從房頂上飛下來，主動要臥在蛋上的時候，母鴿就啄他，趕他走。這時候公鴿就會咕咕直叫，意思是說：“你為什么趕我走??？”

母鴿只是啄他啄得更兇了，意思是說：“請走吧。即將發(fā)生的事情非常嚴(yán)肅。”

就這樣，公鴿飛走了。這讓我非常擔(dān)心，因為我急切盼望這只蛋孵化，而且對它能不能孵出來感到懷疑。我越來越興致勃勃，越來越渴望地觀察鴿巢。一個小時過去了。什么都沒有發(fā)生。又過了大約45分鐘，母鴿把腦袋轉(zhuǎn)向一邊，傾聽著什么——很可能是那只鴿蛋里的動靜。隨后，她微微地驚動了一下。我覺得仿佛她的整個身體都在震顫。隨之，她下定了巨大的決心。只見她抬起頭，對準(zhǔn)目標(biāo)。她兩下就啄開了鴿蛋，從里面露出了一只小小鳥，整個嘴，還有小小的顫抖的身體！且看母鴿，她非常驚訝。這就是她這么多日來期待的小寶寶嗎？噢，他是多么弱小，多么無助??！母鴿意識到鴿寶寶的無助時，就用胸前柔軟的藍(lán)色羽毛蓋住了他。