TAME DOVES. 97 



young ones. They take the tender little beak 

 within their own and then pass the soft food, with 

 which nature provides them at that time, from 

 their own crop into the beak of the fledglings. 

 The young birds seemed to have excellent 

 appetites and grew rapidly, developing tiny quill- 

 feathers all over their bodies, and in a few weeks 

 they were clothed with soft grey plumage, so that 

 we could hardly tell parents from children. 



I have often heard doves spoken of as being 

 less intelligent than other birds. On the contrary, 

 my birds seem to think and almost to reason, as 

 I believe my readers will agree when I tell them 

 some of the clever things they have done. 



One day when I was sitting in a room some 

 distance from the verandah where the doves were, 

 Peace found me out and came tapping with his 

 bill against the window. I am always accustomed 

 to attend at once to any such appeal from a bird 

 or animal, since I generally find it to mean that 

 they urgently require something. 



In this case, as the evening was chilly, I let the 

 three doves into their cage and brought it indoors ; 

 but I soon found all was not right, for the male 



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