10!?6 TRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



7536. The stocking of pigeon-houses is best i)erfonned in May or August, as the birds are then in tn 

 beil condition. Young birds called squeakers should be chosen, as the old are apt to fly away. 



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7537. / breedin^lhkjA^n lJ^tT^t>'^hfte'^g9^%Mch produce young ones of different sexes. When 

 the eggs are laid, the female sits flfteien days, not including the three days she is employed in laying, and 

 is relieved at intervals by the male. The turns are generally pretty regular. The female usually sits 

 from about five in the evening till nine the next morning ; at which time the male supplies her place, 

 while she is seeking refreshment abroad. Thus they sit alternately till the young are hatched. If the 

 female doss not return at the expected time, the male seeks her, and drives her to the nest ; and should 

 he in his turn be neglectful, she retaliates with equal severity. When the young ones are hatched, they 

 only require warmth for the first three days ; a task which the female takes entirely upon herself, and 

 never leaves them except for a few minutes to take a little food. After this they are fed about ten days, 

 with A'hat the old ones have picked up in the fields, and kept treasured in their crops, from whence they 

 satisfy the craving appetite of their young ones, who receive it very greedily. This way of supplying the 

 Toung with food trom the crop, in birds of the pigeon-kind, differs from all others. The pigeon has the 

 largest crop of any bird, for its size ; %vhich is also quite pecuKar to the kind. In two that were dissected 

 by an eminent anatomist, it was found that, upon blowing the air into the windpipe, it distended the crop 

 or gullet to an enormous size. Pigeons live entirely upon grain and water ; these bcdng mixed together 

 in the crop are digested in proportion as the bird lays in its provision. Young pigeons are very ravenous, 

 which necessitates the old ones to lay in a more plentiful supply than ordinary, and to give it a sort ot" 

 half maceration in the crop, to make it fit for their tender stomachs. The numerous glands, assisted by 

 air and the heat of the bird's body, are the necessary apparatus for secreting a sort of pap, or milky fluid 

 (commonly called pigeon's milk) but as the food macerates, it also swells, and the crop is considerably 

 dilated. If the crop were filled with solid substances, the bird could not contract it ; but it is obvious the 

 bird has the power to compress its crop at pleasure, and, by discharging the air, can drive the food out 

 ahb, which is forced up the gullet with great ease. The young usually receive this tribute of affection 

 from the crop three times a day. The male for the most part feeds the young female, and the old female 

 performs the same service for the young male. While the young are weak, the old ones supply them with 

 food macerated suitable to their tender frame; but, as they gain strength, the parents give it less prepar- 

 ation, and at last drive them out, when a craving appetite obliges them to shift for themselves ; for when 

 pigeons have plenty of food, they do not wait for the total dismission of their young ; it being a common 

 thing to see young ones fledged, and eggs hatching at the same time and in the same nest. 



1538. The terms applied to pigeons of different ages are, the youngest, when fed by the cock and hen, 

 squabs, at which age they are most in demand for pies. Under six months of age, they are termed 

 squeakers ; at that age they begin to breed, and then, or earlier, they are in the fittest state for removal 

 to a Strange situation. 



75S9. In respect to food, pigeons are entirely granivorous, and very delicate and cleanly in their diet ; 

 they will sometimes eat green aromatic vegetables, but are fondest of seeds; and tares, and the smallest 

 kind of horse-beans, is the most suitable food both in point of economy and fattening qualities. Peas, 

 wheat, buck-wheat, and even barley, oats, &c., are also eaten by pigeons, but old tares may be reckoned 

 their very best food ; new tares, peas, or beans, are reckoned scouring. Wherever pigeons are kept, the 

 best way to keep them chiefly at home, and thereby both prevent their being lost, and their doing injury 

 to corn-crops, is to feetl them well : this is also the only way in which, in modern times, they will afford 

 abundance of fat and delicate squabs for the table, which, well fed, they will do every month in the year, 

 and thus afford a constant supply of delicate stimulating foot!. Pigeons are generally fed in the open air 

 adjoining their cote or house ; but in inclement weather, or to attach new pigeons to their home, both food 

 and water should be given internally. That this may be done without waste, and without frequently dis. 

 turbing the birds, two contrivances are in use : the first is the meat-box, or hopper, from whence grain 

 or pulse descends from the hopper as eaten out of a small shallow box ; the next is the water-bottle, an 

 ovate, long, naked bottle, reversed in a small ba.;in to which it serves as a reservoir. Any bottle will do, 

 but the pigeons are apt to alight on and dirty such as when reversed present a flat top. 



Ifm. Pigeons being fond of salt, what is called & pigeon-cat is placed in the midst of the pigeon-house, 

 oi' in the open air near it. It seems these birds are fond of salt and hot substances, and constantly swallow 

 small stones to promote digestion. The salt-cat is thus composed. Gravel or drift-sand, unctuous loam, 

 the rubbish of an old wall, or lime, a gallon of each (should lime be substituted for rubbish, a less quan- 

 tity of the former will suffice) ; one pound of cummin-seed, one handful of bay-salt; mix with stale urine. 

 Inclose this in jars, corked or stopped, holes being punched in the sides, to admit the beaks of the pigeons. 

 These may be placed abroad. They are very fond of this mixture, and it prevents them from pecking the 

 mortar from the roofs of their houses, which they are otherwise very apt to do. 



7o41. Cleanliness is one of the first and most important considerations : the want of it in a dove-cote 

 wlH soon render the place a nuisance not to be approached ; and the birds, both young and old, will be so 

 cpyered with vermin, and besmeared with their own excrement, that they can enjoy no health or comfort, 

 and mortality is often so induced. Mowbray's were cleaned daily, thoroughly once a week, a tub standing 

 at hand for the reception of the dung, the floor covered with sifted gravel, often renewed. 



7542. Pigeon-houses are of three kinds, small boarded cases fixed on posts, trees, or against the ends of 

 houses ; lofts fitted up with holes or nests ; and detached buildings. The first are generally too small to 

 contain a sufficient brood, and are also too subject to variations of temperature ; and the last, on the other 

 hand, are now-a-days too large, and therefore the most suitable for the farmer is a loft or tower rising 

 from a building in which no noisy operation is carried on. The lofts of any of the farm-buildings at a 

 distance from the threshing machine are suitable, or a loft or tower over any detached building will 

 answer well ; but the best situation of all is a tower raii>ed from the range of poultry-buildings, where 

 there is such a range, as the pigeons can thus be more conveniently treated, and will feed very readily 

 with domestic poultry. For a tower of this sort, the round form should be preferred to the square; be- 

 cause the rats cannot "so easily come at them in the former as in the latter. It is also much more com- 

 roodious ; fls, by means of a ladder turiiing round upon an axis, it is possible to visit all the nests in the 

 house, without the least difficultv ; which caiihot be so easily done in a house of the square form. And 

 in order to hinder rats from climbing up the outside of it, the wall should be covered with tin-plate to a 



