THE PIGEONS AND DOVES. 149 



and shapely, their tails neither very long nor very 

 short, their wings generally fitted for swift and 

 strong flight. They rarely carry any meretricious 

 ornament, such as crests, or trains, or fancy plumes, 

 but they are all beautiful and some of them 

 exquisitely lovely. Yet their loveliness is not 

 that of golden orioles and kingfishers, but rather 

 of clouds and distant hills and soft sunsets. Nor 

 is their beauty in their feathers only ; their eyes 

 and their feet, and even their beaks, match their 

 plumage and complete the effect. I think also 

 that all the motions and attitudes of pigeons 

 are more graceful than those of other birds. But 

 these are outward features. There are also inward 

 characters by which the tribe is not less markedly 

 distinguished. They are all vegetarians, some 

 feeding on grain and some on fruit, but refusing 

 animal-food in every shape. It is said, indeed, that 

 they sometimes eat snails, but, if this is true, I 

 believe they must have swallowed them by mistake 

 for seeds. Such mistakes will happen to all of us. 

 I knew a person whose fate it was once to mistake 

 lizard's eggs for small white " sweeties." But let 

 us leave that subject and get back to pigeons. They 

 drink like horses, and not by sips as other birds do. 

 They all lay white eggs, never more than two in 

 number, and make simple, flat nests of twigs, which 

 they generally place in trees or bushes, but some- 

 times in holes. They never sing, nor chirp, nor 

 screech. Their voice is a plaintive moan, or coo, 

 verging sometimes on a mellow whistle. But their 

 highest distinction lies in the strength of their social 

 affections and the purity of their domestic life, In 



