74 THE PIGEON. 



Some of them would balance themselves on a table, 

 with their heads downwards, and their tails and feet 

 in the air, standing on their shoulders. One of them 

 took hold of a stick, with his claws, and holding on, 

 suffered himself to be turned around, as if in the act 

 of being roasted. Another balanced itself on a string, 

 and swung backwards and forwards, as mountebanks 

 do on a slack rope. A third was dressed in military 

 uniform, having a cap on its head, wearing a sword and 

 ammunition box by its side, and carrying a gun in one 

 claw : after sitting, or stand ing* upright for sometime, 

 this bird, a,t the word of command, threw off its military 

 dress, without help, and then flew to its cage. A 

 fourth suffered itself to be shot at, and 'falling down, as 

 if dead, was put into a little \vheelbarrow, and 

 wheeled away by one of the other birds. 



Ho\v the Frenchman contrived to make his birds 

 perform such singular tricks is unknown. But it is 

 certain that their education must have cost him much 

 time, labour, and art, which -might have been spent 

 for a nobler and better purpose. 



THE PIGE03T. 



The Pigeon tribe is quite numerous, for to this family 

 belong the Doves as well as the several kinds of 

 Pigeons. Some of this tribe are to be found in al- 

 most every part of the world. Their food is grain, 

 and the seeds of plants. The female lays two eggs, 

 and the young are commonly brother and sister. In 

 the wild state, they generally hatch only once, or twice 



