THE PIGEON 137 



are shared by the father and mother alike, a practice 

 found in no other tame bird. In the morning, when 

 hunger makes itself felt, the female calls the male 

 by a peculiar cooing and invites him to come and 

 take her place on the eggs, which he does with alac- 

 rity. About three or four o'clock in the afternoon 

 the roles change. If the pigeon which until then has 

 remained on the nest does not see its mate coming, 

 there follows an anxious search, with admonitory 

 cooings and, in case of need, admonitory peckings; 

 and the laggard is brought back to the serious busi- 

 ness of brooding. But as a rule the mother is irre- 

 proachably punctual; she returns to the nest at the 

 hour agreed upon and does not leave it again until 

 the next morning. Incubation takes seventeen or 

 eighteen days. 



' i The little ones are born naked, blind, ungraceful. 

 The father and mother, sometimes one, sometimes 

 the other, feed them from the beak. This beak-feed- 

 ing method of the pigeons is exceptional and de- 

 serves special consideration. I need not tell you 

 how other birds feed their brood ; any one that has 

 ever raised a sparrow will know that." 



"The little sparrow," Jules hastened to explain, 

 "opens its beak as wide as it can and the parents put 

 into it the food they have brought, just as I put a 

 grasshopper into it, or a piece of a cherry, or a 

 soaked bread-crumb. ' ' 



"Jules forgets," said Emile, "that it is well to tap 

 the little bird on the tail to excite its appetite and 

 make it open its beak." 



