Craig, Expressions of Eiuotion in Pigeons. 59 



then the wing farthest from the parent is shaken very little or not 

 at all, but the nearer wing is shaken strongly, in many cases being 

 spread across the parent's back, slapping him vigorously. N^ow the 

 question arises : Wliy should the three-weeks-yonng need to beg so 

 hard for food, whik> the new-hatched get it without begging? The 

 answer, I think, is not so far to seek. The parents' mouths have 

 become sore from the fre(]uent distension and friction caused by the 

 insertion of the young ones' bulky beaks. I^esides. the parents give 

 a great deal more food to the large young than to the newly -hatched, 

 and they work harder to bring it up from the crop. They are tired 

 of feeding, and will quit, if not imp(n'tuut'd by the young. The 

 less a young one begs at this stage, the less it will receive. 



First appearance of the crws of the adult: the alarm-note and the 

 Inh. — The first utterance to become differentiated from the begging 

 squeak is the alarm-note. This is first given on the twelfth to the 

 fourteenth day. At that time it has the same pitch and timbre as 

 the squeak of hunger, but differs from the latter in being very short, 

 abrupt, emphatic. It has a quick fall in pitch at the end, and in some 

 cases it seems to have a slight rise at the beginning, though in other 

 cases it appears to be at its highest from the very beginning; its 

 inflection is thus exactly like that of the adults' alarm-note, although 

 its tone is that of the bal)y voice. As the inflection is precisely like 

 that of the adult, so is the attitude struck during alarm, the little 

 fellow standing with neck stretched out, looking at the object, what- 

 ever it may be, that has excited the emotion. It must be said, how- 

 ever, that at first the attitude struck is only a slight one, the head 

 being only very moderately raised ; and tlie alarm-note as first given 

 is not nearly so emphatic as in the adult, not so loud in proportion, 

 so to speak. The pitch of this sound, as given in my notes, varies 

 from d' to c." 



As regards the economy of alarm, parents and young are in agree- 

 ment from a very early stage. The young give the signal upon 

 hearing it from the adults, and the parents likewise may catch the 

 infection from the young, and in all cases the alarm leads to prepara- 

 tion for avoiding danger either by flight or by hiding (squatting 

 low in the nest, depressing the feathers, and keeping very still). 



