these respects they are far ahead of the majority of the human race. Polygamy and polyandry are alike unknown among them. They are all monogamous, and, as far as my observation goes, a pair once united remain true to each other till death do them separate. Their arts of love and courtship are strangely like our own, and after they are married they are always assuring each other of their affection by pretty tokens of tenderness. They are also devoted to their children. I had a pair of pigeons of which the hen died suddenly, leaving two naked and helpless infants. I thought they must die, but the father took the whole care of them on himself and brought them up successfully.
After all this, it is painful to say, what is nevertheless true, that pigeons appear to have been designed in a special degree for the food of other creatures. Being, as I have said, strict vegetarians, their plump bodies are both wholesome and tasty. In this opinion hawks and cats are at one with man. And having no means of protection and no resource in danger, except their swiftness, they are fair game. But they hold their own and multiply, for, though they lay only two eggs at a time, they go on making nest on nest all the year through—in warm countries at least. A pair of domestic pigeons, if provided with two nest boxes, will have eggs in the second before the young are out of the first.
The whole tribe may be divided for our purposes into three groups, namely, Pigeons, Turtle Doves and Fruit Pigeons. We have one of each in Bombay. The Blue Rock, parent of all domestic pigeons, is one of the commonest birds of Bombay. It differs from the Blue Rock of Europe in having the lower
