THE PIGEONS AND DOVES 



429 



others are arboreal and among the strongest fliers. Most 

 species disband during the nesting season, but the pas- 

 senger pigeon nested in colonies of immense size. 



Pigeons' nests are crude affairs, with little shape, 

 built of sticks, and without lining. The eggs are pure 

 white and usually two in number. The young are naked 

 when hatched and perfectly helpless. They are fed by 

 regurgitation during the entire time they are in the 

 nest and indeed until they learn to eat by themselves. 

 The food of the parents consists largely of seeds or 

 grain which is stored in an extremely large, two-lobed 

 crop and there softened and partially digested. This 

 curdlike mass, mixed with a secretion from the wall of 

 the crop, called "pigeons' milk," is injected into the 

 throat of the young bird. 



The writer once tried to raise a young mourning dove 

 which was partially crippled and deserted by its parents. 

 All methods of 

 feeding were 

 unsuccessful, 

 since the bird 

 refused to swal- 

 low, until by 

 chance, I hap- 

 pened to press 

 on the corners 

 of the mouth 

 when food had 

 been placed in 

 the bird's 

 throat. This 

 was like pres- 

 sing the magic 

 button for the 

 muscles of the 

 throat imme- 

 diately began 

 to work and 

 the food was 

 swallowed. It 

 seems nature 

 has taken this 

 method of con- 

 serving food 

 and not until 

 the old bird 

 grasps the cor- 

 ners of the mouth of the young in its bill is it able to 

 swallow, and the old bird, knowing this, does not dis- 

 gorge the food until it has the right hold. Thus no 

 food is spilled or wasted. 



The amount of food which a young dove is given at 

 one feeding is often startling. Its crop is just as well 

 developed as the old bird's and will hold several spoon- 

 fuls of seed, so that after each feeding the contour of 

 the young bird's neck changes decidedly. Naturally 

 the young are fed much less frequently than most young. 



In drinking, pigeons differ from other birds in that 

 they do not raise the head in order to swallow but keep 

 the bill immersed until the draught is finished. 



THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME 



But young doves are not pampered with unnecessary _ comforts. A crude platform of sticks suffices 

 for them. Here the mother dove is brooding her youngsters. 



Pigeons have been variously grouped by ornitholo- 

 gists into families and sub-families but, in general, five 

 large groups are recognized. There are first, the fruit 

 pigeons, of which there are 212 species. They are the 

 most brilliantly colored and are largely confined to the 

 Malayan region. The bleeding heart pigeon, a familiar 

 aviary species, is a typical member of this group but is 

 by no means the most brilliant. 



The second group, the true pigeons, number about 

 120 species and they are found throughout the world. 

 The rock dove and the stock dove of Europe, and the 

 passenger and band-tailed pigeons of North America 

 are typical examples. 



The third group contains the ground doves of which 

 there are 312 species. They, likewise, are cosmopolitan 

 but they are most abundant in the tropics. They have 

 shorter toes and somewhat longer legs than the true 



pigeons and 

 spend most of 

 their lives on 

 t h e ground. 

 The mourning 

 doves of North 

 America and 

 the turtle 

 doves of Eu- 

 rope belong to 

 this group/but 

 they are more 

 similar to the 

 true pigeons 

 than are the 

 majority o f 

 their kin. 



The crowned 

 pigeons, num- 

 bering eight 

 or nine species, 

 are confined to 

 New Guinea, 

 and form the 

 fourth group. 

 They are hand- 

 some slaty-blue 

 birds, and are 

 the largest of 

 all living 

 pigeons, varying from two to nearly three feet in length. 

 The head is adorned with a large compressed crest, 

 which with the large size of the birds gives them quite 

 an unpigeonlike appearance. In fact one might almost 

 think they belonged with the pheasants or the peacocks. 

 The last group or toothed pigeons contains but a 

 single species, the so-called red bird of Samoa which 

 has been almost exterminated by the introduction of the 

 domestic cat. Its bill is quite different from other 

 pigeons, being somewhat hooked and notched or toothed 

 toward the tip. A real tooth is, of course, not present. 

 Of the true pigeons, the domestic variety is naturally 

 the best known. The parent species is the rock dove 



