242 ON THE REARING AND MANAGEMENT 



for the first three days ; a task which the female takes 

 entirely upon herself, and never leaves them except 

 for a few minutes to take a little food. After this 

 they are fed about ten days, with what the old ones 

 have picked up in the fields, and kept treasured in 

 their crops, from whence they satisfy the craving ap- 

 petite of their young ones, who receive it very greedily. 

 This way of supplying the young with food from the 

 crop, in birds of the pigeon-kind, differs from all others. 

 The pigeon has the largest crop of any bird for its 

 size, which is also quite peculiar to the kind. In two 

 that were dissected by an eminent anatomist, it was 

 found, that upon blowing the air into the windpipe, 

 it distended the crop or gullet to an enormous size. 

 Pigeons live entirely upon grain and water ; these 

 being mixed together in the crop, are digested in pro- 

 portion as the bird lays in its provision. Young 

 pigeons are very ravenous, which necessitates the old 

 ones to lay in a more plentiful supply than ordinary, 

 and to give it a sort of half maceration in the crop, to 

 make it fit for their tender stomachs. The numerous 

 glands, assisted by air and the heat of the bird's body, 

 are the necessary apparatus for secreting a sort of pap, 

 or milky fluid (commonly called pigeon's milk) ; but as 

 the food macerates, it also swells, and the crop is con- 



