138 RING PIGEON, OR CUSHAT. 



vice versa. When first excluded, the young are 

 blind, their skin of a blue or livid colour, thinly co- 

 vered with a harsh yellow down. In this tender 

 state, they are long and assiduously brooded over by 

 the parent birds, and are fed with a milky pulp, eject- 

 ed from the crop, where the food undergoes a par- 

 tial digestion, preparatory to its being given to them. 

 As they gain strength and become fledged, food is 

 more frequently supplied, and, consequently, from 

 its not remaining so long in the craw of the old bird, 

 in a less and less comminuted form, till at length, 

 previous to their finally quitting the nest, it is ad- 

 ministered in a state but little altered from that in 

 which it is first swallowed by the old birds. 



The Ring Pigeon breeds twice in the year, viz. 

 in spring, and again in autumn, a cessation taking 

 place during the greater part of June and July, be- 

 ing a period of comparative scarcity, the seeds of 

 such plants as they principally subsist on not having 

 then ripened or attained perfection. The autumnal 

 brood, on account of the more effectual concealment 

 of the nests by the now matured and thick foliage 

 of the woods, is always more abundant than that of 

 spring, and, in favourable districts, great numbers an- 

 nually escape. In certain seasons, the young pro- 

 duced in autumn are subject to a peculiar disease, 

 which destroys many of them even after they have 

 quitted the nest. It appears in the form of large swel- 

 lings or impostumes, upon the feet and head, which, 

 rapidly increasing, at length deprives them of sight 



