236 HISTORY OF 



throw it up again into the mouths of their young 

 ones, who very greedily demand it. 



As this method of feeding the young from the 

 crop is different in birds of the pigeon kind from 

 all others, it demands a more detailed explana- 

 tion. Of all birds, for its size, the pigeon has 

 the largest crop, which is also made in a manner 

 quite peculiar to the kind. In two of these that 

 were dissected by a member of the Royal Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, it was found, that if the ana- 

 tomists blew air into the windpipe, it distended 

 the crop or gullet to a prodigious size. This was 

 the more extraordinary, as there seemed to be no 

 communication whatever between these two re- 

 ceptacles ; as the conduit by which we breathe, 

 as every one knows, leads to a very different re- 

 ceptacle from that where we put our food. By 

 what apertures the air blown into the lungs of 

 the pigeon makes its way into the crop, is un- 

 known ; but nothing is more certain than that 

 these birds have a power of filling the crop with 

 air ; and some of them, which are called crop- 

 pers, distend it in such a manner that the bird's 

 breast seems bigger than its body. The peculiar 

 mechanism of this part is not well known, but 

 the necessity for it in these animals is pretty ob- 

 vious. The pigeon, as we all know, lives entire- 

 ly upon grain and water ; these are mixed toge- 

 ther in the crop, and in the ordinary way are 

 digested in proportion as the bird lays in its pro- 

 vision. But to feed its young, which are very 

 voracious, it is necessary to lay in a store greater 

 than ordinary, and to give the food a kind of 



