Darlene Cason, age 12, of Forest Park, Georgia, for her question:

Do pigeons really feed milk to their babies?

Well, it is not like chocalate  milk or the milk that a human mother feeds to her baby. But pigeon parents do feed a highly nutritious soupy liquid to their youngsters. Actually it is partially digested food. A bird, as you know, has no teeth. He swallows his food in whole gulps and it goes down to a sac called the crop. There the most recent snack is stored and partially digested. Later it goes on down to be more fully digested by the gizzard.

Baby pigeon food is the partially digested food from a parent bird's crop. The mother ant father bird are very devoted parents and when there are a couple of growing youngsters in the nest, they constantly fly off and return with supplies. A young; pigeon knows just what to do. He pokes his open beak into the mouth of the mother or father. The parent bird opens up wide and helps to squirt the soupy pigeon's milk down baby's throat. Actually the young birds expect to be fed in this manner until they are almost fully grown.