EOCK DOVE. 



table, and pick at a cold roast of beef, eating some of the fat. 

 Their usual food is grain or pulse, swallowed whole, which, being 

 unfit to administer to their young in a crude state, they first 

 digest in their own crops, and then with great exertion pump 

 into the crops of the young. The " sucking dove " puts its bill 

 into the parent's throat, and imbibes the soft warm pabulum. 

 Both parents assist in feeding the young, as well as in incubating 

 the eggs the cock sitting on them from nine till three in the 

 day, the hen during the night. They are nearly always constant 

 to the same mate during life, but I have known a domestic 

 tragedy occur in the dovecot. On one occasion a young hen 

 deserted her elderly husband, and eloped with a younger mate ; 

 retribution swiftly followed, and the unfaithful spouse died in 

 laying her first egg. Gentle birds as they are, " Doves will peck 

 in safeguard of their brood," and the cocks often fight fiercely, 

 striking hard blows with their wings, as well as pecking and 

 tugging with their beaks. They are long-lived birds, and go on 

 breeding for many years ; but it is not advisable, if kept for 

 profit, to have them more than three years old, as the old cocks 

 drive away the others from the nests. Neither is it good to have 

 more hens than cocks in the flock, as the hens cannot alone 

 incubate the eggs. They breed both in summer and winter, laying 

 two eggs, which are said to contain male and female young. 

 Each pair should be provided with two nests, and they will lay 

 a second pair of eggs as soon as the first pair of young can 

 dispense with being sat upon. 



Common pigeons do not seem to deteriorate by in-breeding. I 

 have had the same strain for over forty years. When an old 



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