90 
India)! Grccn-nnng Doves. 
always in the evenin,^', l)Oth parents appearinj^' to be very 
affectionate towards tlieir tirstl)orn. 
( )n June _'4tli both ei^.^s were cracketl or l)illin,L;", and 1 
l:)e,L;"an to con,i;ratulate myself on soon havini;' a couple more 
youngsters, but alas! the tragedy of life is always with us in 
aviculture. I ought iiot to have counted my chickens so early, 
for, on paying my usual morning visit on the 25th, I was 
astonished to find the nest contained but one egg, in an advanced 
state of hatching, and no additional young bird in the nest. 
I looked everywhere, but could find no trace of it, so thought 
that the egg had j^roljably hatched and a mouse had carried off 
the fiedglings; a little later, however, the suspicion arose in my 
mind as to whether the first youngster had anything to do with 
the disappearance of this egg or yoimg bird, so I determined to 
watch, and it was fortunate that I did so, for in a little while it 
came in from the outer flight and flew up with the hen on the 
nest. After a time it seemed to notice some movement under 
the hen, and the elder youngster promptly pecked in this direc- 
tion until suddenly the other little body was thrown over the 
edge of the nest. Fortunately T had i)laced plenty of hay 
underneath in case of accident, so the young bird was not hurt 
in. falling; a little blood was on its beak (probably from the other 
])ird pecking it ), but, as this did not appear to be much, I quickly 
put it back, caught up the culprit, and placed it in an adjoining 
aviary, vowing that no other youngster should have this chance 
pgain; no doubt the other egg had hatched, the chick been 
tlirown out in a similar manner, and a mouse had disposed of its 
body. The second youngster was looking all right the next 
morning, and continued to thrive until, on the morning of July 
(Stli, when about twelve and a half days old, it flew off the nest; 
its general appearance was as described for the first youngster. 
On July i6tli, just eight days after the last bird flew, the 
old hen laid again, depositing another egg on the following dav. 
My second young bird, as in the previous case, sat with the 
parents while these eggs were being brooded, but on July 2<Sth 
1 caught it up to prevent any mischief being done to this tin' '' 
clutch of eggs. 
July 30th : Both eggs were hatched by this morning, 
and from this date the squabs grew well and flew on the 12th of 
