A YOUNG NATURALIST. 



369 



Nevertheless they class pigeons among the gallinaceae, look- 

 ing upon them as a link between this order and the passer- 

 ines." 



"Why don't they make an order for them by them- 

 selves ?" 



" Bravo, Master Sunbeam ! your idea is an excellent one, 

 but it has been already proposed ; several naturalists reck- 

 on an order of columbidce. But you ought to know that 

 pigeons inhabit the whole surface of the globe, and that 

 they are white, blue, red, green, and brown; and sometimes 

 all these shades blend together, and add their brilliancy to 

 the pleasing shape of the bird. The pigeon or dove, which 

 is adopted as the emblem of mildness and innocence, is 

 readily tamed ; its flight is rather heavy, but lasting ; and, 

 in Belgium chiefly, it is used as a bearer of letters, by con- 

 veying the bird to a long distance from its home, to which 

 its instinct always leads it to return." 



Lucien seemed very thoughtful. 



" I wish I had known that before," he said ; " we might 

 have brought a pigeon or two with us, and then poor mam- 

 ma would have had news of us before now." 



Sumichrast, who had taken upon himself the office of 

 head-cook, vacant owing to FEncuerado's wound, returned 

 to the bivouac laden with our game. I skirted the wood in 

 company with Lucien, who was the first to discover a West 

 Indian cherry-tree — Malpighia glabra. The red fleshy 

 and acid fruit was much to our taste ; so the boy climbed 

 the tree in order to get plenty, rejoicing in the idea of giv- 

 ing his friends an agreeable surprise. When he had fin- 

 ished, we went to examine a dead tree. A piece of bark, 

 quickly pulled off, discovered a quantity of those insects 

 commonly called earwigs. 



" Do you notice, papa, those white specks one of the ear- 

 wigs is covering with its body ?" 



16* 



