on Bartlett's Bleeding-heart Pigeon. 231


much rain, }roung one fortnight old. First saw the hen feeding -

it, she stood on the edge of the nest with the young one in front

of her; it reached up to be fed, stretching its wings to their

fullest extent, so as to balance itself, one wing being stretched out

on each side of the parent’s neck; it looked almost like some big

brown butterfly with its conspicuous wing bands; one wing was

often clinging round the mother’s neck as if it was embracing her,

the wings were only flapped a little, and it occasionally uttered a

soft prolonged whistling squeak ; it was now almost too large to

be covered by the sitting parent, so that at least one wing could

be seen ; it never seemed to be left alone for a minute. 28th, wet

and foggy morning but warmer. The young one was alone in

the nest, when approached it suddenly got up and fluttered out of

the nest, its wings and legs were very well developed, but the tail

was very short, only just beginning to show; there was a pale,

whitish patch of feathers below the bare chin, no sign of red on

the breast, in fact this area was still bare; when replaced in the

nest it again flew out, this time settling quite lightly about two

yards away, and fluttered rather unsteadily along a path. 29th,

mild day, sun shining ; when first seen the female was on the nest

with the young one, she soon left it, when it walked to the edge

of the nest and seemed to wish to fly, presently it flew

strongly, though rather slowly, for about twelve feet, alighting

011 a thick log about a couple of feet from the ground ; this was

the first time I had seen it stand right up 011 its legs, which

were very long, the toes also seemed enormously developed. It

had not been there a minute, before it began to raise its wings at

intervals of a second or two, exactly as the old cock does when

he can see the hen ; it flew to the ground, and when approached,

flew the whole length of the flight, over 30 feet, against the wire

at the end, showing it could have gone further, and yet it was

only sixteen days old ; later on it flew up to a branch, 8 feet high.

When the young one was awa3% its mother went up to the nest

to look for it; she did not use the sticks I provided for that

purpose, but hopped up on to the top of a heap of stones on the

other side of the clump of ivy, and having gained a horizontal

branch, walked along it until she was above the nest, and then

' jumped down into it.



