COLUMBINE BIRDS. 69 



perching, or for supporting the bird on tufts of vegetation, of 

 which it eats the seeds. Doves are much more elegant in 

 their forms than the gallinse ; and in all the British species 

 the prevailing colours are mixed tints, very softly blended, in 

 which blue, green, and red predominate, excepting in the 

 quill-covers and tail feathers, and these are more or less 

 black. They are strictly monogamous, and pair for the 

 season even in their wild state; but it is of course not true 

 that in any of the species the survivor mourns in singleness 

 in case of casualty to its mate, for when the season comes 

 round the widowed bird pairs the same as ever ; and the note, 

 though plaintive to our ears, is a love-song and not a song of 

 lamentation in the bird. Birds never sing in sorrow. They 

 scream when in fear or in pain, and those that are in the 

 habit of watching have a peculiar warning cry ; but there is 

 this much of charm in the songs of birds, independently of 

 their music, that they are always songs of pleasure. 



The doves are much more exclusively vegetable in their 

 feeding than the gallinae, or indeed than almost any other 

 order of birds. Seeds, and other vegetable substances that 

 are farinaceous or succulent, are their favourite food. They 

 join in the labours of the field ; and while the rooks follow 

 the plough, picking up the larvae of cockchafers and other 

 insects, the pigeons are just as busy in eating the couch- 

 grass and other creeping roots. 



They do not even feed their young with insects, as many 

 birds do, while they themselves live more (at least at some 

 seasons) on vegetables ; and nature has provided them with 

 the means of adapting that food to the tender stomachs and 

 weak digestion of their fledglings. 



All birds that feed much on vegetable matter, have an 

 expansible portion of the gullet which can be enlarged into a 

 sack capable of holding a considerable quantity of food, which 

 passes gradually into the gizzard or true stomach, after the 



