IS THE DOVE SPEECHLESS? 201 



But the dove had no intention of the sort ; he 

 came calmly down on one side. 



The first dove baby who accompanied its 

 parent to the ground to be fed was the model 

 of propriety one would expect from the demure 

 infant already mentioned. He stood crouching 

 to the ground in silence, fluttering his wings a 

 little, but making no sound, either of begging, 

 or when fed. A blackbird came to investigate 

 this youngster, so different from his importunate 

 offspring, upon which both doves flew. 



There is a unique quality claimed for the 

 dove : that with the exception of the well-known 

 coo in nesting time he is absolutely silent, and 

 that the noise which accompanies his flight is 

 the result of a peculiar formation of the wing 

 that causes a whistle. Of this I had strong 

 doubts. I could not believe that a bird who has 

 so much to say for himself during wooing and 

 nesting time could be utterly silent the rest of 

 the year ; nor, indeed, do I believe that any liv- 

 ing creature, so highly organized as the feathered 

 tribes, can be entirely without expression. 



I thought I would experiment a little, and 

 one day, observing that a young dove spent most 

 of his time alone on a certain cedar-tree, where 

 a badly used-up nest showed that he had prob- 

 ably been hatched, or feeding on the ground 

 near it, I resolved to see if I could draw him out. 



