108 PIGEONS. 



are reared during the season. The young are fed for some 

 days after exclusion from the egg, not on grain, nor insects, but 

 upon a peculiar lacteous secretion, or curd-like matter, which 

 is poured out from a series of glands in the crop both of the 

 male and female, which glands develope themselves into 

 activity by a mysterious law at the proper juncture. This 

 lacieous fluid is very abundant, and will frequently drip from 

 the bills of the pigeons as they approach their young. It is 

 thrown into the open mouths of the nestlings by a kind of 

 exgurgitation, the receiving one and the giver being both in 

 agitation. In the course of a few days, pulse or grain, 

 moistened in the crops of the parents and mixed with this 

 lacteous curdy fluid, is given, the secretion gradually decreas- 

 ing as it is less and less required, till at length peas, moistened 

 or macerated in the crop, are alone transferred into those of the 

 young. 



About the third day, some of the ordinary food, after mace- 

 ration in the crop, is added, its proportion being increased, till 

 at length, when the young quit the nest, it constitutes their 

 food entirely. 



Though fancy pigeons are kept for the sake of their beauty 

 and peculiarities, the ordinary dove-house pigeon is reared 

 almost exclusively for the sake of its flesh, which is accounted 

 in most countries a delicacy. But how far the rearing of great 

 numbers of these birds is profitable in our country may admit 

 of question; the quantity of peas, beans, and grain, which 

 even a small flock will annually consume, is enormous. 

 What, then, must be the consumption of flocks of many 

 hundreds! 



DISEASES. 



THE megrims, or epilepsy, is an incurable disorder, in which 

 the pigeon moves about and flutters at random, with its head 

 turned, and its bill resting upon its back. 



If the birds suffer much while moulting, remove them to a 



