[Three Hundred Animals Contents]

IS well known as to his shape, but the colour varies so much that it eludes the rules of classification. They prefer a gregarious life, and abide often to the number of five or six thousand in a tower purposely built for them in the neighbourhood of the farm yard, with proper holes to nestle in. The female pigeon, through the whole species, lays two eggs at a time, which bring generally a male and a female. It is much pleasing to see how eager the male is to sit upon the eggs in order that his mate may rest and feed herself; faithfulness and harmony are invariable inmates of their nests; most happy would they be had they no others, but they are often infested by insects always ready to vex and torment the young ones.