Dovecot

“ Daddy Darwin's Dovecot was freehold, and when he inherited it from his father there was, still attached to it a good bit of the land that had passed from father to son through more generations than the church registers were old enough to record. But the few remaining acres were so heavily mortgaged that they had to be sold. So that a bit of house property elsewhere, and the old homestead itself, were all that was left. And Daddy Darwin had never been the sort of man to retrieve his luck at home, or to seek it abroad. ”

“ Dove′cot, -cote, a small cot or box in which pigeons breed.—adjs. Dove′-drawn (Shak.) , drawn by doves; Dove′-eyed, meek-eyed.—ns. Dove′-house, a dovecot; Dove′let, a small dove.—adj. Dove′-like, innocent.—ns. Dove's′-foot, the common name for Geranium molle; Dove′ship, the character or quality of a dove.—Flutter the dovecots, to disturb commonplace, conventional people, as the eagle would a dovecot (see Shak., Cor. V. vi. 115) . [A.S. dufe in dúfe-doppa; Ger. taube.]
Dovekie, duv′ki, n. the little auk, a diving bird of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. ”

“ That most memorable tea-party had fired his soul with two distinct ambitions. First, to be a choir-boy; and, secondly, to dwell in Daddy Darwin's Dovecot. He turned the matter over in his mind, and patched together the following facts:
The Board of Guardians meant to apprentice him, Jack, to some master, at the earliest opportunity. Daddy Darwin (so the old pauper told him) was a strange old man, who had come down in the world, and now lived quite alone, with not a soul to help him in the house or outside it. ”

“ That Jack was not the neatest creature breathing, one look at him, as he stood with pigeons on his head and arms and shoulders, would have been enough to prove. As the first and readiest repudiation of his workhouse antecedents he had let his hair grow till it hung in the wildest elf-locks, and though the terms of his service with Daddy Darwin would not, in any case, have provided him with handsome clothes, such as he had were certainly not the better for any attention he bestowed upon them. As regarded the Dovecot, however, Daddy Darwin had not done more than justice to his bargain. ”

“ Throughout the Middle Ages, there was prevalent another custom which is repugnant to modern ideas. This was the keeping of doves in or near churches. Most frequently, it is true, a separate structure seems to have been built to accommodate the birds, as at Garway, Herefordshire. The Garway dovecot, a fourteenth century building, would house 600 birds. Sometimes, as we have seen at Gumfreston (p. 115 supra) , a portion of the tower was utilized as a pigeon loft, while again, as at Elkstone, Gloucestershire, a chamber was built over the chancel [446] . ”

“ As the birds multiply, the owner adds cylinder to cylinder till they form a kind of wall. Towards sunset, he or his wife approaches the dovecote, greeted by a friendly cooing from inside, picks up from the ground a piece of wood cut to the right size, and closes the opening of the first bark box with it, doing the same 92to all the others in turn, and then leaves them for the night, secure that no wild cat or other marauder can reach them. ”

“ Poor little dove trying your wings in the upper air, flashing the silver in the sun; fancying you are free to circle in the heavens so blue above you! Your wary hawk watches patiently, only waiting for you to soar a little higher, venture a little farther from the shelter of the dovecote; then he will strike you down, fasten his talons in your heart. 'Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.' The first yon have yet to leap, and with Erle Palma as your preceptor, your prospective tuition fees are heavy. ”

“ He has bare legs so he can wade about in the grass and not get his clothing wet. He uses those long toes and sharp claws to scratch in the earth for food. He does not catch mice with them. He uses that strong bill for picking up grain. People call him a rooster."
THE TWO DOVES
Two doves, White-coat and Blue-feather, lived in a dovecote. They were brothers and were very fond of each other. White-coat was a great home body, but Blue-feather liked to travel.
One day Blue-feather said to White-coat, "I want to see the world. This place is very tame. ”

“ In Greenland, where it is commonly found a close companion of the black-billed auk, the native Greenlanders call the Dovekie the Ice Bird, as they consider it a harbinger of ice.
Though the wings of the Dovekie are small in proportion to the size of its body it flies well and rapidly. One writer states that it will move its wings almost as rapidly as will a humming-bird. It is an expert diver and while swimming or resting on the water it will frequently dip its bill into the water. On the land it is much more graceful and walks better than nearly all the other members of the family of auks. ”

“ According to a third, the best way to make an imitation dove's nest is to take four slender twigs, lay two of them on a branch and then place the remaining two crosswise on top of the first pair. For all this, the dove's nest is a wonderful structure; it is a lesson in how to make a little go a long way. Doves seem to place their nurseries haphazard on the first branch or ledge they come across after the spirit has moved them to build. The nest appears to be built solely on considerations of hygiene. Ample light and air are a sine qua non; concealment appears to be a matter of no importance. ”

“ The dove has a way of gurgling his coo in the throat. The wryneck's 'kie-kie-kie,' the last syllable plaintively prolonged, is not like the call or songs of other birds; it reminds one of the peacock's strange scream, not in its actual sound, but its singularity. When it is suddenly heard from the midst of the thick green hedges of a summer's day, the bird itself unseen, it has a weird sound, which does not accord, like the blackbird's whistle, with our trees ”

“ It is plain that he could not have reached Mauritius till 1629, though 1627 has been usually assigned as the date of his visit. The fullest account he gives of the bird is in his edition of 1638: “The Dodo comes first to a description: here, and in Dygarrois [3] (and no where else, that ever I could see or heare of) is generated the Dodo (a Portuguize name it is, and has reference to her simpleness,) a Bird which for shape and rareness might be call’d a Phoenix (wer’t in Arabia:) ” &c. ”

“ In the moment of their downfall I was able to form a plan and execute it.
'The stables!'
I shouted the words to Audrey in the act of snatching up the Nugget and starting to run. She understood. She did not hesitate in the direction of the house for even the instant which might have undone us, but was with me at once; and we were across the open space and in the stable-yard before the first of the men in the drive loomed up through the darkness. Half of the wooden double-gate of the yard was open, and the other half served us as a shield. ”

“ It is high water at Dover pier at sixteen minutes past eleven on the full and change of the moon; and the rise of the water at spring-tides is about twenty feet. Dover is much frequented in summer as a watering-place; and for the convenience which it affords, and the beautiful and interesting scenery in its neighbourhood, it is surpassed by no other town on the coast.
At a short distance from the entrance to Dover Castle is mounted the long brass gun, usually called Queen Elizabeth's pocket-pistol, which was presented to her Majesty by the United Provinces. ”

“ Dudley walked beside him to the door, while Miss Eden and Polly went as far as the car and then scampered back to linger at the window for a last good-bye.
The air was keen, but Doodles, snug beneath the robes, was warm as need be.
Giles drove fast. In a little while they passed the postoffice in Carleton, then the granite church at Berryville, and not long afterwards the outskirts of Foxford came in sight.
Doodles grew eager as familiar objects were whizzed by. When the car turned into Cherry Street he sat motionless, looking ahead where The Flatiron showed in the distance. ”

“ The tysté, or doveca, Colymbus grylle, is a beautifully formed bird, occurring in considerable numbers in icy situations, at various distances from land. It is so watchful, and so quick at diving, that, if fired at without precaution to conceal the flash of the powder, it generally escapes the shot. ”

“ Judge of my surprise and pleasure in detecting, in a dark corner of the picture, (which is badly hung between two windows,) the Dodo, beautifully finished, showing for example, though but three inches long, the auricular circle of feathers, the scutation of the tarsi, and the loose structure of the caudal plumes. In the number and proportions of the toes, and in general form, it accords with Edwards' oil-painting in the British Museum; and I conclude that the miniature must have been copied from the study of a living bird, which, it is most probable, formed part of the Mauritian menagerie. ”

“ If the migratory bird arrives ever so weary at Dover, and its true home be some sweet low-lying lane of Devonshire, a thick hedgerow of the midland counties, or a thickety glen of Westmoreland, it will not delay its flight nor be tempted to tarry short of that glen, hedgerow, or lane with which the experience of its own life and affection is united. ”

“ 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 [Pg 157] it can fly, though it is fat enough to be all right until it gets so hungry it learns to find food for itself. ”

“ The dodo is said to have inhabited forests and to have laid one large white egg on a mass of grass. Besides man, hogs and other imported animals seem to have exterminated it. But the dodo is not the only member of its family that has vanished. The little island which has successively borne the name of Mascaregnas, England’s Forest, Bourbon and Réunion, and lies to the southward of Mauritius, had also an allied bird, now dead and gone. ”

“ I made them a dove-cote with a chimney and a real door; and they took possession, and were as proud and happy a dove family as I ever saw. We named the new comer Dodo, and for Bennie's sake, as well as her own, were very good to her.
Each morning they would fly upon the carriage-house to sun; and then Bennie would exhibit his plumage, and tell Dodo all of his thoughts. First he would spread his splendid tail to its greatest width, and march up and down, his breast flashing in the sunlight, and looking very proud. Then he would spread his wings and do the same thing ”

“ The ring-neck dove builds in coverts in the woods, as does also the partridge, which is likewise a species of the dove kind, but from its great resemblance, it is called the pieddrié by the French. The flesh of the three kinds is much liked, but has a bitter taste, as has that of most other birds of the country, owing to the berries they feed on; this taste, though at first disagreeable, is soon relished by most people, and they are reckoned very wholesome. The ground dove is not much bigger than a lark when stripped of its feathers, which are of a brown colour. ”

“ Just then a frightful roaring, so near that it seemed to come from the stable in which they were, gave so violent a shock to Jovial, that with one effort he broke his halter, leaped over the bar that marked his place, and rushing at the open door, escaped into the court-yard.
Dagobert had himself started at the suddenness of this wild and fearful sound, which at once explained to him the cause of his horse’s terror. The adjoining stable was occupied by the itinerant menagerie of the brute-tamer, and was only separated by the partition, which supported the mangers. ”

“ In the street below people hurried along, every now and then glancing upward at the threatening sky. Little whiffs of wind whirled the dust in the roadway, and thunder growled in the distance.
“Bet some folks’ll git wet!” prophesied the boy, as he turned back to the room. He was surprised at the dim light. He could scarcely see Doodles, over on the couch. Doodles was timid in a thunder storm, and Blue crossed the floor to his side.
“Prob’ly the heft of it’ll go round, as usual,” he said; “but ’t will be cooler. We shall like that, old feller, shan’t we?” ”

“ The dovekies and marrocks, of course, all flew away; but we were too proud to do that. Some of us were dashed to pieces, and some drowned; and those who were left got away to Eldey, and the dovekies tell me they are all dead now, and that another Gairfowlskerry has risen out of the sea close to the old one, but that it is such a poor flat place that it is not safe to live on: and so here I am left alone. ”

“ It is just as flat as a maple-leaf, and what is to keep those poor little Doves from tumbling to the ground I can't see."
"I wouldn't worry about the little Doves yet," said a Warbler. "I don't think there will ever be any little Doves in that nest. The eggs will roll off of it long before they are ready to hatch, and [Pg 85] the nest will blow to pieces in the first storm we have." ”

“ There Doodles saw so many novel and interesting things that for the time he forgot the chief of his thoughts,—when should he go to the great surgeon whose word was to bring him joy or sorrow? But after luncheon he said to himself, “It is coming now—in an hour or two!” Yet Miss Fleming went out by herself, and stayed away all the afternoon, leaving Daphne and Doodles to the care of Laure, her maid. They had a happy time with some new books and photographs; but through it all buzzed the questions, “When will it be? What will the doctor say?” ”