PIGEONS 209 



and violent cooings at various hours, especially at early dawn 

 when most of us would prefer a few hours more sleep. They 

 nest in the cornices and returns of houses, constituting a 

 source of nuisance, vermin, noise and other undesirable things, 

 added to which they are absolutely good for nothing while alive 

 though good when dead as an article of food. 



Both birds help in building the nest which is a rather flat 

 bulky mess of straw and twigs and two white eggs are laid, 

 and two of these eggs from among many contributed by these 

 persistent nuisances on my own house measure 1.55 x 1.13, 

 1.52 X 1.14. They nest at almost any season, as I have seen 

 birds incubating in December and February and seen young 

 in January. The incubation period is almost exactly fourteen 

 days and the young are barely ready to leave the nest before 

 another set of eggs is laid elsewhere. Both birds take turns 

 in incubating, and the male has much affection for his mate, 

 wooing her assiduously and seemingly remaining mated with 

 her for a long time. He feeds her frequently by the well known 

 method of regurgitation, and when the young birds are hatched 

 both feed them in the same way, secreting the substance known 

 as "pigeon milk" for them at first and later giving them ordi- 

 nary grain which is partially digested. 



The young do not remain in the nest much over three to four 

 weeks. The male birds are most pugnacious, strutting back 

 and forth on some favorite perch and cooing. If a rival comes 

 near there is much cooing, slapping each other with their wings, 

 pecking each other and pulling of feathers. Alas, "As gentle 

 as a dove" is indeed a most fearful stretching of poetical license. 

 I have seen the fight protracted until one is killed or completely 

 exhausted, but it usually ends by one flying away before this 

 stage is reached. 



During the winter the birds congregate in large flocks about 

 the freight sheds and grain stores in the business portion of 

 the city, roosting on the roofs of certain buildings. Here on 

 a cold day they may be seen on the sunny side, bunched up 



