," said the Doctor.

"It might have been tame pie and it was very good! But, Uncle Roy, why
did people want to kill these good, food birds when they didn't care to
eat them?"

"It is difficult to say exactly, little girl. People living in what we
call a state of nature, like African savages, or as our American Indians
once did, seem to follow Heart of Nature's law; 'Kill _only_ what ye
need for food.' But many people that are called civilized never think of
natural law at all, and having a coarse streak in their natures desire
to kill wild things merely for the sake of killing. It is against such
people that laws must be made by those who have more intelligence.

[Illustration: Mourning Dove]

"Now for your Dove, Nat--called the Mourning Dove from his mournful
'coo-o-coo-o!''

"At first," said Nat, "when I saw it in the glass case it looked sort of
bluish-brown. But near by it is greenish-brown and gray on top, and its
head and neck have bright colors, like what you see on silver that has
not been cleaned for some time or the spoon with which you have been
eating boiled eggs."

"We call those colors metallic tints," interrupted the Doctor, to help
Nat out.

"Thank you; that is what I was trying to say. It is just like what Rap
called soap-bubble colors on the Pigeon's neck, but this Dove has got
black specks like velvet on the neck too, and a black band on the tail
with white tips to the feathers; underneath it is dull purple and sort
of buff, and its feet are red, and it's about a foot long."

"That is a fairly good description of a bird whose colors it is almost
impossible to put into words. Do you know anything about this Dove,
Rap?"

"I only know it builds such a poor nest that you would think the eggs
would drop through the bottom, only they don't seem to. There was a
nest in the miller's woods last year, with two white eggs like tame
Pigeons', only smaller, and when they hatched I took one of the squabs
home for a pet. It became very tame, but I had to let it fly because it
grew too big and dirty,--it was like keeping a Chicken in the house.

"The miller said they were mischievous birds, and ate so many oats that
he had to sow his field twice over. Is that true, Doctor, or do they
belong to some good guild?"

"They do not eat insects, though they may do a little work as Weed
Warriors, and as they are fond of grain they may have helped themselves
to some of the miller's oats; but usually when they fee