THE PARADISE GRAKLE. LYRE BIRD, ETC.

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PARADISE GRAKLE.

THIS is a native of New Guinea, where it perches on the tallest trees, feeding upon fruits and berries. In its manners it resembles the Crow. It is sixteen inches long, with a large strong beak. The plu. mage is iridescent green, violet, gold and silver, on a steel blue ground.

This bird, called by naturalists the Minura Superbas, is found in New South Wales, where it lives in the thickets on the coasts, and on the mountains in the interior. It is shy and difficult of access. Its chief beauty is in the plumage of its tail, which is very elegant, assuming the form of an ancient Lyre. It has has an agreeable song of its own, and imitates those of other birds, and even the barking of a dog.

This is an African bird. It is ash-colored, glazed with blue above and rust color below, with a red bill. Like our common Crow Black bird, it lives on the insects which infest the hides of quadrupeds and on the larvæ hatched under the skin of the larger ruminating animals, as the Ox, Buffalo, and the heavy Antelopes. His strong claws and bill enable him to reach these vermin to the great relief of his patients.

1

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OF THE PIGEON TRIBE IN GENERAL.

These birds have a weak slender bill, straight at the base; with a soft protuberance, in which the nostrils are situated. The legs are short, and in most of the species red; and the toes are divided to the origin.

The Pigeons constitute a tribe that forms a connecting link between

PIGEONS.

for the most part, a male and a female. once in the year; and the parent birds by sitting alternately on the eggs.

the passerine birds and the poultry. They are much dispersed over the world, some of the species being found even in the arctic regions.

Their principal food is grain: they drink much and not at intervals like other birds, but by a continued draught, like quadrupeds. During the breeding-time they associate in pairs, and pay court to each other with their bills. The female lays two eggs, and the young-ones are, They usually breed more than divide the labor of incubation

Both the male and female assist in feeding their offspring. This, in most of the species with which we are acquainted, is done by means of a substance secreted in the crop, which in appearance is not unlike curd, and is analogous to milk in quadrupeds. During incubation, the coat of the crop is gradually enlarged and thickened, like what happens to the udders of female quadrupeds during the time of uterine gestation. On comparing the state of the crop, when the bird is not sitting, with its appearance on these ocasions, the difference is found to be very remarkable. In the first case it is thin and membranous; but when the young-ones are about to be hatched, it becomes thicker, and takes a glandular appearance, having its internal surface very irregular. Whatever may be the consistence of this substance when just secreted, it probably very soon coagulates into a granulated white curd; and in this form it is always found in the crop. If an old Pigeon be killed just when the young-ones are hatching, the crop will be found as above described, having in its cavity pieces of white curd mixed with the common food of the bird, such as barley, peas, or grain. The young Pigeons are fed for a little while with this substance only:

THE WILD PIGEON, OR STOCK-DOVE.

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about the third day some of the common food is to be found along with it. As the Pigeons grow older, the proportion of common food is in creased; so that by the time they are seven, eight, or nine days old, the secretion of the curd ceases in the old ones, and of course no more is found in the crop of the young. It is a curious fact, that the parent Pigeon has, at first, power to throw up this curd without any mixture of common food; although, afterwards, both are thrown up, in the proportion required for the young-ones.

THIS bird is of a bluish ash-color: the breast is dashed with a fine. changeable green and purple; and the sides of the neck are of a shining copper-color. Its wings are marked with two black-bars; one on the coverts, and the other on the quill feathers. The back is white, and the tail barred near the end with black. The usual weight is about fourteen ounces.

Multitudes of Wild Pigeons visit this coun

try in the winter, from

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their more northerly summer retreats. They appear about November, and again retire (except a few that breed with us) in the spring. While the beech woods were suffered, to cover large tracts of ground, these birds used to haunt

them in myriads, frequently extending above a mile in length, as they went out in a morning to feed. They are, however, still found in considerable quantity, forming their nests in holes of rock, and old towers, and in the hollows of trees; but never, like the Ring

dove, on the boughs. In a state of domes

tication, these Pigeons are known to breed eight or nine times in the