“Why, how do you drink water?” asked Tommy Smith. “Don’t you drink it like other birds?”
“I should think not,” said the father woodpigeon. “Other birds take a little in their bills, and then lift their heads up and let it run down their throats, but we pigeons would be ashamed to drink in such a way as that. We keep our beaks in the water all the time, and suck it up into our throats. That is how we drink, and nothing could make us do it differently. We don’t lift our heads up.”
“But why shouldn’t you lift them up?” said Tommy Smith; for he thought to himself, “If all the other birds drink like that, it ought to be the right way.”
“Why shouldn’t we?” said the father woodpigeon. “Why, because it would be stupid,—and wrong too,” he added after a pause, during which he seemed to be thinking.
“There is a still stronger reason,” said the mother woodpigeon, “the strongest of all reasons; at least, I cannot imagine one stronger. It would be unpigeonly.” And from the tone in which she said this, Tommy Smith felt that it would be no use to say anything more on the subject.
“If there was any water here,” said the father woodpigeon, “I would drink a little just to show you, but the nearest is some way off. However, you can watch some tame pigeons the next time they are drinking, for we all belong to one great family, and have the same ideas upon important points. Now I am going for a short fly, but if you like to stay and talk to my wife, I shall be back again in an hour.”
But Tommy Smith had to go too, for his lessons began at eleven o’clock, and of course it would not do to miss them, though it seemed to him that he was getting a much better lesson from the woodpigeons. “But I wish,” he said, “before you fly away, Mr. Woodpigeon, you would just tell me what you do all day.” But as Tommy Smith said this, there was a rustle and a clapping of wings, and the father woodpigeon was gone.
“He is so impetuous,” said the mother woodpigeon. “There is no stopping him when he wants to do anything. But I will tell you what we do all day, so listen. We rise early, of course, and fly down to breakfast at about six. After three or four hours we come back to the woods again, and coo and talk to each other there for about an hour. Then we go off to drink and to bathe, which is the nicest part of the whole day. After that we feel a little tired and sleepy, so we sit quietly in the woods till about two. Then it is quite time for dinner, so off we go again and feed till about five. After dinner it is best to sit quiet and coo a little. A quiet coo aids digestion. Then we have a nice refreshing drink in the cool of the evening, and after that we go straight to tree.”
“Do you mean to bed?” said Tommy Smith.