A COOING PAIR 



347 



Mourn 



Dove. 



streak in their natures desire to kill wild 

 things merely for the sake 

 It is against such people t 

 laws must be made by those 

 who have more intelli- 



gence. 



" Now for your Dove, 

 Nat — called the ]\Iourn- 

 ing Dove from his 

 mournful 'coo-o-coo-o ! " 



"At first/' said Nat, 

 " when I saw it in the 

 glass case it looked sort 

 of bluish-brown. But 

 near by it is greenish-brown and gray on top, and its 

 head and neck have bright colors, like what you see on 

 silver that has not been cleaned for some time or the 

 spoon with which you have been eating boiled eggs." 



" We call those colors metallic tints," interrupted 

 the Doctor, to help Nat out. 



" Thank you ; that is what I was trying to say. It is 

 just like what Rap called soap-bubble colors on the 

 Pigeon's neck, but this Dove has got black specks like 

 velvet on the neck too, and a black band on the tail 

 with white tips to the feathers ; underneath it is dull 

 purple and sort of buff, and its feet are red, and it's 

 about a foot long." 



'^ That is a fairly good description of a bird whose 

 colors it is almost impossible to put into words. Do 

 you know anything about this Dove, Rap ? " 



" I only know it builds such a poor nest that you 

 would think the eggs would drop through the bottom. 



