家里小朋友如果一男一女，会被称为pigeon pair

jn1216

pigeon pair 的来龙去脉，了解一下吧。免得下次有人和你说恭喜pigeon pair的时候，和我一样挠头。

Dear Word Detective: My wife and I have recently had a baby girl to follow our baby boy of two years ago. Everyone has been congratulating us on our "pigeon pair." What does this mean actually? Where did the term originate? Any ideas? -- Joe.

Gee, I miss pigeons. I was a big fan of pigeons when I lived in New York City, but out here in the country the closest things we have are mourning doves, birds so stupid they make pigeons seem like shoo-ins for Mensa. We do, however, have a pair of fairly smart turkey vultures, named Monroe and Babs, that nest in one of our trees every spring. They're fun to watch once you get over the sense of doom that comes from vultures circling your house all day.

What we usually call a "pigeon" is a member of the dove family, of which there are actually more than 300 varieties. Pigeons found in US and European cities are usually of the "Rock Dove" or "Rock Pigeon" variety, the name coming from the creature's natural habitat in coastal cliffs. In New York City, they are sometimes called "flying rats," which really isn't fair to the much smarter rat. We'd all better hope rats never learn to fly. Pigeons are known for their extraordinary sense of direction, so if you're ever lost in New York, don't hesitate to ask the nearest flock for help. Especially if you're trying to get to Bellevue.

Like all doves, pigeons lay two eggs at a time in their simple little nests, and thereby hangs the tale of "pigeon pair." Legend has it that pigeon broods always consist of one male chick and one female chick, which then grow up to mate and live together for life. Evidently whoever came up with that legend had never taken basic biology, since inbreeding on such a scale would be a genetic disaster for the species. But as a rather hokey invocation of symmetry and balance in nature, "pigeon pair" has been applied to human babies since the mid-19th century. The primary meaning of "pigeon pair" is a boy and a girl who are twins, but an extended sense encompasses your situation, a boy and girl born a bit apart but constituting (at least for the moment) the only children in the family.

gwendolyn

哦﹏﹏

sche7172

哈哈希望将来可以

jn1216

原帖由 sche7172 于 2012-6-29 11:02 发表
哈哈希望将来可以

这个，要听天由命的。

不过，愿你心遂所愿。

zwz9608

我也希望将来可以有人恭喜我说pigeon pair