As far as the pigeon thing goes: pigeons used to be much more popular than they are now ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_keeping https://en.wikipedia.org/

As far as the pigeon thing goes: pigeons used to be much more popular than they are now ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_keeping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_keeping ). Remember how Darwin's _Origin of Species_ is half about all the varieties of pigeons that pigeon fanciers had bred? (And one of the people to read a draft advised him to make it even more about pigeons?) Or how pigeon racing used to be a huge sport in cities like NYC/Baltimore/London? They were also raised for their meat & eggs. So people would've been much more familiar with pigeon sizes than they are now.