THE PIGEON 



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In all parts of the world many varieties of wild pigeons are 

 to be found. If you are near a pine wood you may often hear 

 the gentle coo-cooing of the pigeons among the trees, and if you 

 take a walk through the wood you will every now and then be 

 surprised by a loud flapping overhead as pigeons, startled by your 



Pigeons 



steps, fly away from their roosting-places. Looking up you will 

 see here and there among the branches little bundles of sticks. 

 These are the pigeons' nests. If you climb up a tree and look at 

 one you will find that it is made of sticks loosely put together, and 

 just sufficiently hollowed in the centre to keep the two glossy 

 white eggs from falling over. 



Pigeons never lay more than two eggs at a time, but they some- 

 times rear several broods in a season, and in every case one of 

 the young birds is a cock and the other a hen. The young, when 

 first hatched, are very strange little things. They have no feathers, 

 are quite blind and very helpless, and they have larger beaks than 

 their parents. But this last peculiarity enables the old birds to get 



