CHAP, ii.] DIFFERENCES AMONG THE EGGS AND YOUNG. 63 



the nest, to increase the accommodation for his two 

 little new-comers ; so that if a pair are known to be sit- 

 ting, and the cock is observed to fly up to the loft with 

 sticks and straws in his bill, it is a sure sign that 

 hatching is about to take place. The object is pro- 

 bably to keep the young squabs from contact with 

 their own accumulated dung; otherwise it is very apt 

 to clog their feet, and hang in hardened pellets to each 

 claw. The same thing often happens to adult birds 

 that are closely caged. The pellets should be re- 

 moved by splitting them with a pen -knife ; but it is best 

 done by two operators ; one, to hold the bird. Calling 

 on a worthy old Pigeon-fancier, now no more, on looking 

 round I could not help asking, " Why, where 's your 

 Bronze-wing? You have not parted with that ?" " Ah, 

 Sir," he replied, "such a misfortune this morning! 

 I took it out of the cage to clean its feet ; it struggled, 

 and I held it tight against my chest: too tight for 

 when I had done, the bird was dead ! I would not have 

 taken five guineas for it. It was sent me all the way 

 from Sydney !" 



The eggs of the different breeds of Domestic Pigeons 

 are much less dissimilar than those of Fowls ; they vary 

 a little in size, but their shape and proportions are the 

 same. I have never seen a buff Pigeon's egg, of the 

 hue of those of the Malay or of the Cochin China Fowl, 

 and not even a cream-coloured one. All the wild 

 Pigeons' eggs, too, that I have had an opportunity of 

 inspecting, as well as those of the Collared Turtle, look 

 as if they were every one of them cast after the same 

 model. It would be most difficult, on being shown an 

 egg of any of the Columbidce, to pronounce by which 

 species it had been laid. 



