92 The Nahiralist m La Plata. 



and drive him off, big as he was ; and. as a 

 rule, it would sib apart, a foot or so, from the others. 

 The dove was also a male ; but its male companions, 

 with instinct tainted by domestication, were igno- 

 rant alike of its sex and different species. Now, it 

 chanced that my pigeons, never being fed and 

 always finding their own living on the plain like 

 wild birds, were, although still domestic, not nearly 

 so tame as pigeons usually are in England. They 

 would not allow a person to approach within two 

 or three yards of them without flying, and if grain 

 was thrown to them they would come to it very 

 suspiciously, or not at all. And, of course, the 

 young pigeons always acquired the exact degree of 

 suspicion shown by the adults as soon as they were 

 able to fly and consort with the others. But the 

 foundling Zenaida did not know what their startled 

 gestures and notes of fear meant when a person 

 approached too near, and as he saw none of his own 

 kind, he did not acquire their suspicious habit. On 

 the contrary, he was perfectly tame, although by 

 parentage a wild bird, and showed no more fear of a 

 man than of a horse. Throughout the winter it 

 remained with the pigeons, going afield every day 

 with them, and returning to the dove-cote ; but as 

 spring approached the slight tie which united him 

 to them began to be loosened ; their company grew 

 less and less congenial, and he began to lead a 

 solitary life. But he did not go to the trees yet. 

 He came to the house, and his favourite perch was 

 on the low overhanging roof of a vine-covered porch, 

 just over the main entrance. Here he would pass 

 several hours every day, taking no notice of the 



