118 OUR DOJIESTIC FOWLS. 



both sexes of tlie dove genus," and from our 

 own observations we should say that the curd 

 is mixed up with a fluid secretion in the crop 

 previously to being transferred into that of the 

 young, — nay, sometimes so abundant is this 

 fluid that we have seen it drip from the bills 

 of the old birds, both while feeding their young, 

 and at other times. 



Though nothing like this lacteous secretion 

 for the support of the newly-hatched young is 

 produced by any of the truly gallinaceous 

 tribes, yet we must not suppose that it is 

 altogether limited to the pigeons. Some, if 

 not all of the parrots, as John Hunter observes, 

 appear to be endowed with the same faculty, 

 and it will, perhaps, be found to prevail 

 amongst the passerine tribes more extensively 

 than is suspected by naturalists. 



Besides this great point of distinction 

 between the columbine and gallinaceous birds, 

 and the other grounds of dissimilarity to which 

 we have adverted, the following may also be 

 enumerated. Instead while drinking, of taking 

 water into the mouth and elevating the head, 

 in order to swallow, as we see the fowl do, the 

 pigeon simply takes a continuous draught. 

 White says — " Most birds drink sipping at 



