uld give food
in very much the same way to their one wild baby? It might not be
exactly the same, because tame pigeons and wild Passenger Pigeons are
not the same kind of doves; but they are cousins of a sort, which means
that they must have some of the same family habits.

If you should find a nest in Michigan in May, perhaps you can learn more
about these matters, and watch to see whether, when the baby dove is all
feathered out, Dame or Sire Dove pushes it out of the nest even before
it can fly, though it is fat enough to be all right until it gets so
hungry it learns to find food for itself. Perhaps you can watch, too, to
see why Dame and Sire Dove seem to be in such a hurry to have their
first baby taking care of himself. Is it because they are ready to build
another nest right straight away, or would Dame Dove lay another egg in
the same nest? Tame Mother Pigeon often lays two more eggs in the next
nest-box even before her twins are out of their nest. Then you may be
sure Father and Mother Pigeon have a busy time of it feeding their
eldest twins, while they brood the two eggs in which their younger twins
are growing.

It would be very pleasant if you could watch a pair of Passenger Pigeons
and find out all these things about them. _If you could!_ But I said
only "perhaps," because the people who know most about the matter say
that Michigan has lost more than a million, or possibly more than a
billion, doves. They say that, if you should walk through all the woods
in Michigan, you would not hear one single Passenger Pigeon call,
"Kee-kee-kee" to his mate, or hear one pair talk softly together,
saying, "Coo-coo." There are sticks and twigs enough for their nests
lying about; but through all the lonesome woods, so we are told, there
is not one Sire Dove left to bring them to his Dame; and never, never,
never will there be another nest like the millions there used to be.

[Illustration: _Through all the lonesome woods there is not one dove._]

Well, then, if we cannot find them at sunset in their roosting-place in
Kentucky or in their nests in Michigan in May, shall we give up the
quest for the lost doves? Or shall we still keep hold of our courage and
our hope and try elsewhere?

Surely, if there are any of these birds anywhere, they must eat food!
Shall we seek them at some feeding-place? This might be everywhere in
North America, from the Atlantic Ocean as far west as the Great Plains.
That is, everywhere in a