PIGEONS. 



109 



warm place, mix a good quantity of hemp seed in their ordi- 

 nary food, and tinge their water with saffron. 



When the birds are affected with the wet roup, give them a 

 few pepper corns once in three or four days, and put some 

 green rue in their water. 



The dry roup is a husky cough, arising from a cold ; when 

 three or four cloves of garlic should be given to the birds daily. 



When your pigeons are infested with insects, fumigate their 

 feathers thoroughly with tobacco. 



The canker is occasioned by the cocks pecking each other, 

 which, as they are extremely irritable, they often do. To cure 

 it, rub the part daily with a mixture of burnt alum and honey. 



If the incrusted flesh round the eyes of " carriers," " Barbs," 

 or " horsemen," be injured or pecked, bathe it with salt water ; 

 and if, in some days, this remedy does not succeed, another 

 lotion composed of three drachms and a half of alum, dissolved 

 in two ounces of water should be tried. 



When " pouters" and " croppers "gorge themselves, by over- 

 eating, after long fasting, put the bird, feet downward, into a tight 

 stocking, smoothing up the crop so that, overloaded as it is, it 

 may be kept from hanging down ; then hitch up the stocking on 

 a nail, and keep the bird a prisoner until its food is digested, 

 supplying it with a small quantity of water occasionally. 

 When the bird is taken out of the stocking, it should be put 

 into an open cor p or basket, and fed but scantily for a while. 



For lameness, or swelled balls of the feet, whether from cold, 

 cuts with glass, or any accident, the most effectual application 

 is a small quality of Venice turpentine spread on a piece of 

 brown paper. 



