It hardly seems that we an: giving eredit for too much lutelligeiice to a robin or 

 a bluebird or a jay when we say that doubtless the parents know one youngster 

 from another as well as any human mother knows the difYerence between Tom 

 and Bill, or Maud and Jenny. 



The mourning dove is one of the must aljundant birds of the Grand Prairie. 

 The farmers say that it dearly loves corn. The result of this claim of the farmer 

 has been that the dove has been placed upon the list of game birds, and is now 

 shot on sight in every Illinois field from Cook County to Grand Tower. The 

 law granting the right to shoot the doves was passed only recently. That is 

 why it is the birds are still abundant. It was always a source of v.-onder to the 

 bird-student that the tribe of mourning doves was so great even under the condi- 

 tions of the law's protection. The bird lays but two eggs, and the nest is so 

 poorly constructed that a heavy rain-storm frequently utterly demolishes it. 

 The mourning dove's nesting habits are erratic. In some sections of the countn' 

 it builds only upon the ground, while in other sections the nest is invariably 

 l>laced either in a tree or on a stump top. One thing in favor of the perpetuation 

 of the mourning dove's species is the fact that the birds generally nest twice in 

 a season. I saw a curious thing once in a Grand Prairie orchard. A male 

 mourning dove was feeding two lledgeling young that were perched on a limb not 

 four feet removed from the spot where the mother bird was sitting on two 

 newly laid eggs. 1 met the father dove frequently during the next week. He 

 had led his charges away from the nest, but he was attending faithfully to the 

 duties of feeding tlic youngsters and of teaching them to l1y. The nest with 

 its eggs was on a limb that had been broken away partly from the body of the 

 tree. How the eggs were contained by the few wisps of straw and the twig or 

 two that did service as a nest was a iiuzzle. As it was the mother had to be 

 content that season with one brood, for a heavy wind broke the limb on which 

 her second home was placed completely away from the trunk ,ind -^ent eggs and 

 nest tumbling to the ground. 



In the same Grand Prairie orchard I found the ncsl of a Nellow-billed 

 cuckoo, which showed but little more evidence of .i builder's ability than did 

 that of a mourning dove. From beneath the limb upon which it was placed 

 one could see the sky through the nest. 'l'hen> were four eggs in the ramshackle 

 structure, and it is a pleasure to say that they escaped destruction in the storm 

 that biought disaster to the home of the do\e. 'I'he cuckoo loves caterpillars. 

 VVlien a father and a mother cuckoo have four lusty young ones in the nest, as 

 was finally the case with this Grand Prairie pair, they will do more good in the 

 way of caterpillar-slaying than will four pairs of any other I)ir(l species umler 

 the sun. There is something uncanny about the cuckoo. Its movements a^ 

 It glides along the branches through the thick foliage suggest the wamlerings of 

 a restless spirit. The bird can make plenty of noise when it chooses, but when 

 it is being watched it usually preserves a silence that strengthen^ the uncanny 

 feeling that its mr)vements impart. 



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