BIRD STORIES 



stilled and their evening uproar has been silenced. Men 

 may now walk beside the Green River, and hear each 

 other though they speak in whispers. 



Would you like to seek the dove in Michigan in May? 

 For there it was, and then it was, that these wild pigeons 

 nested, so we are told by people who saw them, by 

 hundreds of thousands, or even millions. They built in 

 trees of every sort, and sometimes as many as one hun- 

 dred nests were made in a single tree. Almost every tree 

 on one hundred thousand acres would have at least one 

 nest. The lowest ones were so near the ground that a 

 man could reach them with his hand. 



Suppose you should find, next May, just one pair 

 nesting. Sire Dove, w^e think from what we have read, 

 would help bring some twigs, and Dame Dove would lay 

 them together in a criss-cross way, so that they would 

 make a floor of sticks, sagging just a little in the middle. 

 As soon as the floor of twigs was firm enough, so that an 

 egg would not drop through. Dame Dove would put one 

 in the shallow sagging place in the middle. It would be 

 a white egg, very much like those our tame pigeons lay; 

 and, because there would be no thick soft warm rug 

 of dried grass on the floor, you could probably see it 

 right through the nest, if you should stand under- 

 neath and look up. But you could n't see it long, be- 

 cause, almost as soon as it was laid. Dame Dove would 



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