NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 399 



feeds Lis young ; but Hunter adds, that he does not know 

 if at this time he throws up anytliing from the crop. I 

 have observed a similar action, during the breeding season, 

 in rooks; and I have reason to believe that the cocks 

 feed the hens while they are sitting, as well as the young, 

 with food saved in a kind of gular pouch under the 

 lower mandible, but I do not know whether they feed 

 either the hens or the young with food which has under- 

 gone any alteration in the crop, or whether the hens feed 

 their young or their mates with such provender. Hunter, 

 from the observations made by him on the parrot-kind, 

 states that he has reason to suppose that they are endowed 

 with the same power as the pigeons. 



As the breasts or udders of mammiferous females 

 become gradually enlarged and thickened at the time of 

 uterine gestation, so, during incubation, are the coats of 

 the pigeon's crop ; and John Hunter, on comparing the 

 state of that organ when the bird was not sitting, with 

 its appearance during incubation, found the difference 

 very remarkable. In the first case, it was thin and mem- 

 branous ; but by the time when the young were about 

 to be hatched, tlie whole, except the portion which lay 

 under the trachea, became thicker, and assumed a glan- 

 dular appearance, having its internal surface very irre- 

 gular. It was likewise evidently more vascular than in 

 its former state, in order to the conveyance of a quantity 

 of blood sufficient for the nourishing substance. 



' Whatever may be the consistence of this substance 

 when just secreted, it most probably very soon coagulates 

 into a granulated white curd, for in such form,' says 

 Hunter, in continuation, ' I have always found it in the 

 crop ; and if an old pigeon is killed just as the young 

 ones are hatching, the crop will be found as above de- 

 scribed, and in its cavity pieces of white curd, mixed 

 with some of the common food of the pigeon, such as 

 barley, beans, &c. If we allow either of the parents to 



