374 



THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



the central part of the wob deeply notched, as if a piece had been cut out, as repre- 

 sented in the annexed engraving. 



FEATHEB OF VINAGO. 



The genus Pfi/iiwpiis presents another peculiarity. Hero the iirst quill feather of the 

 ■nangs is considerably shorter than the second, and suddenly narrowed towards the tips. 

 as the engraving will show. This peculiarity is also possessed by several pigeons 

 belonging to other distinct groups, and by which means a connexion is thus kept up 

 between them. 



One of the tricks practised on the first of April in former days was, to send those on 

 whom they were to be played for half a pint of pigeon's milk ; but as a black swan, long 

 deemed an impossibility, has actually been found, so has the substance for which many 

 have been sent on a fool's chace. Alluding to a provision that exists very similar to that 

 of the milk in quadrujieds, the celebrated Jolm Hunter makes the following statement : — 



" I have, in my inquiries concerning the various modes in which 3'oung animals are 



FEATHER OF PTILINOPUS. 



nourished, discovered that all the dove kind are endowed with a similar power. The 

 young pigeon, like the young quadruped, till it is capable of digesting the common 

 food of its kind, is fed with a substance secreted for that purpose by tlie parent animal ; 

 not, as in the mammalia, by the female alone, but also by the male, which perhaps 

 furnishes this nutriment in a degree still more abundant. It is a common property of 

 birds, that both male and female are equally employed in hatching and in feeding their 

 young in the second stage; but this particular mode of nourishment, by means of a 

 substance secreted in their o^vn bodies, is peculiar to certain kinds, and is carried on in 

 the crop. 



" Whatever may bo the consistence of this substance when just secreted, it most 

 probably very soon coagulates into a granulated white curd ; for in such a form I have 

 always found it in tlie crop ; and if an old pigeon is killed just as the yoimg ones are 

 hatching, the crop will be found as above described, and in its cavity pieces of white curd 



