92 The Naturalist 1 La Plata. 
and drive him off, big as he was; and, as a 
rule, it would sit apart, a foot or so, from the others. 
The dove was also a male; but its male companions, 
with instinct tainted by domestication, were ignor- 
ant alike of its sex and different species. Now, it 
chanced that my pigeons, never being fed and 
always finding their own living on the plain like 
wild birds, were, although still domestic, not nearly 
so tame as pigeons usually are in England. They 
would not allow a person to approach within two 
or three yards of them without flying, and if grain 
was thrown to them they would come to it very 
suspiciously, or not at all. And, of course, the 
young pigeons always acquired the exact degree of 
suspicion shown by the adults as soon as they were 
able to fly and consort with the others. But the 
foundling Zenaida did not know what their startled 
gestures and notes of fear meant when a person 
approached too near, and as he saw none of his own 
kind, he did not acquire their suspicious habit. On 
the contrary, he was perfectly tame, although by 
parentage a wild bird, and showed no more fear of a 
man than of a horse. Throughout the winter it 
remained with the pigeons, going afield every day 
with them, and returning to the dove-cote ; but as 
spring approached the slight tie which united him 
to them began to be loosened; their company grew 
less and less congenial, and he began to lead a 
solitary life. But he did not go to the trees yet. 
He came to the house, and his favourite perch was 
on the low overhanging roof of a vine-covered porch, 
just over the main entrance. Here he would pass 
several hours every day, taking no notice of the 
