136 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



have the neck encircled with a ruff of disordered 

 feathers. Jacobins wear a sort of hood resembling 

 a monk's cowl. The turbit carries on the nape of 



its neck a tuft of feath- 

 ers thrown back and 

 hollowed out like a 

 shell. Tumblers are 

 remarkable for their 

 strange evolutions in 

 the air: in mid-flight 

 they will suddenly let 

 Jacobins themselves fall and 



turn a somersault as if shot in the wing. This rec- 

 reation is their favorite pastime." 



"The pleasure of a vertical fall," remarked Jules, 

 "accompanied by a somersault, must carry some fear 

 with it. Perhaps that is what gives zest to this ex- 

 ercise." 



"But the pigeon pulls up in time!" queried Emile. 

 "Whenever it wishes to," his uncle replied, "it 

 brings to an end its downward hurtling from these 

 airy heights, ordinary flying is resumed, and pres- 

 ently the tumbles begin again finer than ever. Here 

 let us pause, without exhausting the list of varieties, 

 amounting to twenty-four, counting only the princi- 

 pal ones. These few examples show you sufficiently 

 what diversity pigeon-house life has stamped on the 

 form, habits, and plumage of the primitive bird. 



"All pigeons, wild as well as tame, lay never more 

 than two eggs to a hatching, from which generally 

 spring brother and sister. The cares of brooding 



