266 



OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



How pigeons rear their young. After a pair of pigeons have 

 completed their nest, the male seems to come at once to the 



conclusion that home duties 

 demand his mate's constant 

 attention. At the nest he 

 struts about, cooing and coax- 

 ing, entering the nest him- 

 self, then leaving it and 

 plainly showing his wish that 

 she should take the nest. 

 If she goes away from the 

 nest, he follows her with his 

 head high and his neck in- 

 flated. His cooing turns to 



FIG. 217. Homer squabs four weeks old i v 



scolding. He pecks at her 



and will not give her a moment's peace until she returns to the 

 nest. The hen lays one egg and, after laying it, spends most of 

 her time standing on the nest until the second or third day after, 

 when she lays another egg 

 and immediately begins to 

 sit. She seems to know that 

 if she sat on the first egg 

 before laying the other, one 

 squab would hatch two or 

 three days earlier than the 

 other, and the second squab, 

 being smaller and weaker, 

 would have a hard time. 

 The work of incubation is 

 done mostly by the hen, the 

 cock taking only a minor 

 part. For about an hour in 

 the middle of the morning and again in the middle of the after- 

 noon he relieves her on the nest, giving her a chance to eat, drink, 



FIG. 218. Carneaux squabs four 

 weeks old 



