STRAYING. 149 



sitting is equally divided between the cock and hen, 

 excepting that the hen always sits by night. She 

 is relieved in the morning by the cock, which sits 

 during the greater .part of the day. The business 

 of feeding the young is also divided between the 

 parents ; and the cock has often brought up the 

 young, on the accidental loss of his mate. Should 

 not the eggs be hatched in due time, from weakness, 

 some small assistance may be necessary to extricate 

 the bird from the shell ; or should they be addled, 

 it is generally held necessary to provide the cock 

 and hen with a borrowed pair of young, or at least 

 one to feed off their soft meat, which else may stag- 

 nate in their crops and make them sick: but as 

 young ones for this purpose may not always be at 

 hand, the exercise of flying, fresh gravel, and those 

 saline compositions generally given to pigeons, are 

 the proper remedy. Addled, or rotten eggs, should 

 be immediately removed. 



Pigeons are extremely liable to be lost by acci- 

 dent, and that which is unaccountable, although 

 they will find their home from such great distances, 

 they nevertheless often lose themselves in their own 

 neighbourhood. Should a cock or hen be lost 

 during incubation, the eggs will be spoiled in twenty 

 or thirty hours, and may then be taken from the 

 nest ; but if the accident happen after hatching, the 

 single parent left will feed the young. Should both 

 parents be lost, the young are very easily accustomed 

 to be fed by hand with small peas or tares, much 

 preferable to barley. We did not find any neces- 



