276 
POPULAR SCIENCE REYIEW. 
in the tree which I thought they had selected to build in, and 
wove two or three small branches in such a manner as to afford 
them a choice of resting-place, and also to catch the sticks 
they dropped. I ought to have mentioned, that the birds were 
excessively tame, having been brought up in the house, and 
that I was constantly in the habit of taking them from their 
cage and playing with them, hence they allowed me to stroke 
them or handle them without fear, so that my interference did 
not disturb them. As soon as I had finished, the male bird 
found the new place, and cooed in evident delight, and he was 
immediately joined by the two hens, each with a stick. 
After vainly endeavouring to lodge the sticks above their 
heads for a couple of hours, sometimes from the old and some- 
times from the new resting-place, and dropping them, they gave 
up work. 
I now, however, observed that all the cleft and branched 
sticks had been gathered from the bottom of the aviary and 
lodged amongst the branches near the top of the tree. I also 
observed that the birds every now and then picked up a stick, 
balanced it for a little time in their bills, and then dropped it 
again. The thought struck me that straight sticks and twigs 
would not do, so I collected a number of forked branches and 
branches with lateral twigs. No sooner were these thrown into 
the cage, than the birds made their usual crowing noise and 
resumed work. As soon as all the branched sticks were used, 
they at once ceased work, although there was an abundance of 
unbranched sticks of suitable size in the cage. The end of all 
this was, that in three days, they had finished a nest exactly like 
that of a wood pigeon. They lined it neatly with straw, and 
ornamented it with some tufts of the dried flowers of the sugar- 
cane (Saccharum officinale), which I took out of a vase in the 
drawing-room, and broke up, as I thought the soft feather-like 
flowers of the grass would make a good lining to the nest. They 
did not use it, however, for this purpose, but let a few pieces 
hang over the edge of the nest, with a great deal of straw, per- 
haps for the purpose of concealment. Each dove laid two eggs 
in the nest, and they are now sitting by turns with the male. 
The apparent use of the side branches on the twigs which 
they use is to peg the nest together, as these hang down and 
pass through the meshes of the sticks which are already laid. 
The important facts to my mind are, first, these birds had 
never seen a tree, or, at least, sat on one, yet they selected a 
place nine feet from the ground for their nest. They had never 
seen twigs, and could have no experience in the use of lateral 
branches, yet they carefully selected these and no other. 
Secondly, they had apparently no idea of the use to put the 
sticks to, when they had selected them, unless they are in the 
