308 BIRDS OF THE FARM AND THE FARM- YARD. 



by Noah to determine the condition of the earth after 

 this great captain and his family had become weary of 

 navigating the Ark, brought back the olive-branch, which, 

 like its feathered bearer, has ever since been regarded as 

 the emblem of peace. 



The Dove is more completely domesticated than the 

 Quail could be under any circumstances. But it is al- 

 most exclusively granivorous, and is not so useful a bird 

 as the Quail, flocks of which, if protected by providing 

 them food and shelter, would frequent our orchards, and 

 rid the trees entirely of the canker-worms by picking 

 up the insects that generate them before they have 

 climbed the tree. Mr. George W. Rice of West Newton 

 has for several years past kept his apple-trees free from 

 canker-worms by means of early chickens. He binds a 

 raw cotton band round the tree very near the ground. 

 Before the insects have time to creep over this obstacle, 

 they are caught by the hens and chickens, so that not 

 more than one in a hundred escapes. 



Doves of all species seem to be very similar in their 

 manners. Almost the only notes they utter are a gentle 

 cooing, and if you scare one it does not scream, like 

 other birds, but makes only a low moaning. Hence 

 arose the reputation of the Dove for gentleness. Yet it 

 is not without spirit or courage. When a boy I had a 

 flock of thirty pigeons, all white. I watched them so 

 attentively that I learned all their peculiar habits, the 

 constancy of the mated female, the gallantry of all males 

 toward unmated females, and the courage with which 

 both sexes would defend their place and nest. I could 

 distinguish each one of the flock from all the rest, and 

 had a name for each. They were all black-eyed but one, 

 and this one had a slight tinge of lilac upon its white 

 feathers, and its eyes were light gray. The common slate- 

 colored Pigeon has red eyes. 



