THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 61 



The proper food for pigeons, and the cheapest, is tares, peas, and 

 small horse-bran, called pigeon-bran ; but they will eat any sort of 

 grain. If at liberty, they will provide green food for themselves ; but 

 if confined, they must be provided with such, and also abundance of 

 gravel, with a little rape and canary seed occasionally. All things 

 being arranged, the birds might be procured, and those should be 

 young ones just fledged, but which have never essayed the wing ; 

 otherwise they will be difficult to retain. May and August are the 

 best seasons to provide a stock of young birds (called by the trade 

 squeakers). They begin to breed when six months old, and will, under 

 good management, produce eight or ten couples a year. Wonderful 

 accounts are published of the fecundity of pigeons, Stillingfleet 

 asserting that I4,7CiO pigeons were produced in four years from a 

 single pair. This may be rather an exaggerated estimate, but it is 

 apparent that they multiply exceedingly. 



The pigeon is monogamous, that is, the male attaches himself to 

 one female ; and the attachment is reciprocal — the fidelity of the dove 

 to its mate being proverbial. In providing young ones it is not 

 difficult, however, to match them according to the wish, provided 

 they have not already formed their attachment. For this purpose 

 they must be shut up together, or near and within reach of each 

 other, and the courtship, carried on by cooing, brings about the 

 connection in two or three days. The male is distinguished from 

 the female bird by his superior size and forwardness of action. As 

 the pigeon takes little care or precaution about her nest, it is neces- 

 sary to make one for her, by placing a little soft hay in the hole. 

 She lays two eggs only ; and having laid one, she rests a day, then 

 deposits another, and proceeds to sit. 



The period of incubation is nineteen days from the first egg, and 

 the labour of sitting is equally divided between the cock and hen, 

 excepting that the hen always sits by night. Both the old birds are 

 also equally assiduous in procuring food for and feeding the young. 

 Should no young pigeons be produced after the lapse of a day or 

 two beyond the time of incubation, the eggs (addled or rotten) 

 should be removed, and a squab taken from another pair and substi- 

 tuted. The parents will rear this, and feed off their soft-meat upon 

 it, which might otherwise stagnate in their crops and injure them. 

 The soft-meat is a sort of pap secreted in the craw against the time 

 it is required for nourishing the young. They have the power of 

 throwing it up at will, and in feeding eject it from their own bills 

 into those of the young ones. This kind of feeding continues about 

 a week, after which they mix some harder food with it, and at length 

 feed with whole grain. When the time approaches for the hen to 

 lay again, the cock will not suffer her to rest, but drives her about 

 until she settles on the nest, probably from an instinctive apprehen- 

 sion that the might drop her egg in an improper place. At the end 

 of a month the young ones are abandoned, and left to shift for 

 themselves. The unerring sagacity which the pigeon displays in 

 returning to its home from a considerable distance enables it to roam 

 over a wide district in search of food ; and farmers consequently suffer 

 greatly wherever dovecotes are established within reach of them. 

 The powers of digestion of this bird are very great, and the con- 



Fcbmtry. 



