WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



as affectionate in their attachments as are most 

 of the doves and pigeons whose "biUings and 

 cooings" have become exaggerated into a proverb 

 to express the first enthusiasm of young love. 

 Their home is an indifferent affair, but perhaps its 

 very scantiness may serve to benefit its owners 

 by making it less conspicuous among the almost 

 leafless branches, where it is likely to be placed 

 early in the season. The nest is not by any means 

 always in a tree, although a snug thorn-apple 

 offers temptations that few doves can resist; but 

 it may be put on the flat top of a stump, on the 

 protruding end of a fence-rail, or the eggs may 

 sometimes be laid on the ruins of a last year's 

 nest, as in a case I once noticed where three dove's 

 eggs were laid in an old cat-bird's nest, around 

 the ruins of which the snow was yet unmelted. 

 On the plains I have seen many times how these 

 birds scratch a few grass-stalks together on the 

 ground, for want of a better place. It is not to be 

 wondered at that pigeons have been easily domes- 

 ticated, when they accommodate themselves so 

 readily to any exigency in rearing their young. 

 However placed, this nest is a slight platform of 

 twigs, just sufficient to hold the two or three eggs ; 

 or, if the top of a stump, or the ground, be chosen 



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