FOOD OF PIGEONS. 



257 



These birds live almost entirely on grain. Tares, 

 peas, and the smallest kind of black or brown beans, 

 called pigeons' beans, are their proper food; but all 

 must be ripe and dry, for new grain is apt to scour 

 them and do mischief. Like most other animals, they 

 are fond of salt, but an excess of it is fatal to them. 

 The scent of coriander and other seeds is pleasant to 

 pigeons, and it is said attract them strongly to their 

 dove-cote, and to allure strangers. 



A mixture of loam, sand, old mortar, fresh lime, bay- 

 salt, cumine, coriander, carra way, and allspice, moistened 

 with urine, is sometimes beaten np into a thick sort of 

 mortar, and left for the pigeons to pick at. They are 

 very fond of it, and, according to an old fancy, it keeps 

 them in health. A piece of board should be placed on 

 this mixtiire, that the pigeons may not scatter and dirty 

 the lump as they alight upon it. The pigeon is not in 

 such high repute as in former days, but is still sufficiently 

 esteemed as a delicate article of food, to make it worthy 

 of attention among our domestic poultry. 



