272 CLASS AVES. 



where they nestle, to migrate into more southern regions. 

 There are at least very few exceptions to this fact. The 

 borders of forests, and the neighbourhood of waters, appear 

 to suit them best. They do not appear in very numerous 

 flocks, except at the periods of their migrations. Their 

 flight is noisy, and not very light, but they can sustain it a 

 long time. As these birds do not digest the seeds of certain 

 fruits, they propagate the vegetable species in their voyages 

 by voiding the seeds with their excrements. It is thus that 

 the multiplication of the nutmeg-tree may be explained in 

 islands where no traces of it were to be found at no very 

 remote era. 



The pigeons are extremely amorous, and exhibit their pro- 

 pensity this way by certain accents of the voice, which have 

 been denominated cooing. 



When the young are bom, the parents watch them with 

 the greatest assiduity ; and they have need of these cares, 

 for they are almost naked, blind, and very weak, and not able 

 to run and seek their food like the young gallinae. Accord- 

 ingly, the parents disgorge the food which they have amassed, 

 and placed in reserve in their crop. One species alone, the 

 goura, is an exception to this rule, whose little ones, six or 

 eight in number, are clothed with down at their birth, and 

 run immediately in search of insects. 



Of the pigeons' eggs, in general, which for the most part 

 are but two, one produces, almost always, a male, and the 

 other a female. The individuals thus born and brought up 

 together, never quit each other, and shew the most decided 

 mutual attachment. 



Levaillant has established three sections among the species 

 of the pigeons, which have been generally admitted by ornitho- 

 logists, and among the rest by the Baron. They are founded 

 on differences of manners, and on some external characters. 



The first is that of the Gallinaceous Pigeons. It com- 



