166 KINDS OF FOOD MISTAKE IN BEANS. 



FOOD. Pigeons are entirely granivorous, and very 

 delicate and cleanly in their diet ; they will some- 

 times eat green vegetables, in particular warm salads, 

 and are extremely fond of seeds. TARES and the 

 SMALLEST kind of HORSE BEANS, commonly called 

 pigeon beans, are both the best and cheapest food 

 for pigeons, but the pulse should always be old, 

 that is to say, of the previous year, as the new will 

 scour pigeons, as well as any other kind of live 

 stock. SEEDS are occasionally given to pigeons, as 

 a warming and stimulant diet ; but, according to my 

 experience, they greatly prefer rape and canary to 

 hemp-seed. It has been remarked, that beans, sod- 

 den in salt-water, scour pigeons equally with new 

 beans, and, in a voyage, suffering them to drink 

 sea-water will soon kill them : although so generally 

 benefited by salt, an excess of it is fatal, as it is 

 also to vegetation, promoted as that is by a moderate 

 quantity. 



In most publi cations on the subject of pigeons, a 

 dangerous mistake has been made in a term applied 

 to beans. Small tick beans are recommended, in- 

 stead of small horse-beans. Now the tick, or kid- 

 well (in the western phrase), are the larger of the 

 two common field varieties, and, beside being inferior 

 in quality, are too large for pigeons, which have 

 been sometimes choked even with the common-sized 

 horse-beans ; on which account, the smallest possi- 

 ble should be procured, whence such are termed 

 in the market accounts, " pigeon-beans. " Pease, 

 wheat, and buck-wheat, or brank, are eaten by 

 pigeons ; but should be given only in alternation, 



