DOVES AND PIGEONS.
The Bath.
1. Everybody likes the dove; it is such a pretty bird, and is always so clean. It flies all about the yard, the garden, and the street. Even the rudest boys do not often disturb it.
2. It is about the size of a half-grown chicken, and looks more like a chicken than any of the other birds we have studied.
3. The doves about our houses are usually white, or a bluish gray. They live in pairs, each pair having its own nest, or home; but where doves are kept, many pairs live in the same house or dove-cote.
4. They have a short, pointed bill, like a chicken, and strong legs and toes, so that they can walk and scratch easily.
5. The mother dove lays but two eggs before sitting, and then her mate sits on the nest half of the time until the eggs are hatched. The young doves, called squabs, are covered with down like chickens, but, unlike chickens, the old ones must feed them a week or two before they are able to go about by themselves.
6. Both the father and mother dove feed the young ones with a kind of milky curd which comes from their own crops.