246 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



close companionship, without any degeneration taking 

 place among the offspring in consequence of in-breeding. 



In our changeable climate, the nesting plans of this 

 little Dove are not altogether a success, at least not 

 after a certain point, for at first they appear to be car- 

 ried on smoothly enough, but just at the moment when 

 success seems to be about to crown the efforts of the 

 parents, misfortune steps to the front and failure and 

 disappointment ensue. 



The tiny couples pair, build their inartistic nest, lay 

 their two eggs, upon which they each take a turn with 

 praisewortly assiduity after the manner of their race, 

 and when the young are hatched, which occurs on or 

 about the seventeenth day of incubation, attend to 

 them with laudable care and attention, and all goes on 

 as merrily as the proverbial marriage ball. Well fed, 

 well nursed, and, generally speaking, well looked after, 

 the young ones thrive apace, and by and by begin to 

 sprout their feathers. Then comes the crucial time, not 

 only for the expectant aviarist, but for the birds them- 

 selves, for the old as well as for the young. 



As long as the latter are quite little and helpless, 

 featherless and blind, the devotion of the parents to 

 them is exemplarly, and they brood them continuously; 

 but as soon as they get big enough to wriggle about 

 on their natal platform, and to exchange their baby 

 covering of yellowish down for quills that look like 

 bristles, they either tumble off the flat nest, and are 



