270 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY Ot chap. 



bound in their leases, to pay to the landlord a 

 certain number of hens and chickens every year. 

 No cottager is without his breed of hens ; and 

 whilst he preserves his number of breeders, he 

 sells the rest, and such a proportion of the eggs, 

 as he does not use in his family. The fowls 

 and eggs are generally sold to the inhabitants of 

 the towns within the county ; and some are car- 

 ried to the Edinburgh market, by persons who 

 make a business of collecting them for that pur- 

 pose. The peacock, and Guinea fowl, are like- 

 wise to be seen about gentlemens houses ; but 

 they are kept rather as ornamental birds, and 

 seldom appear at table. 



5-JTCn FIT. PIGEONS. 



PIGEONS, however much esteemed as art af* 

 tlcle of food, and however ready and convenient 

 a dish they may afford to the table> are justly 

 reckoned a great nuisance to the country at large. 

 There are, in this county, not fewer, perhaps, 

 than 360 pigeon cotes, which may contain 

 36,000 pairs of breeders. They make dreadful 

 havock among the grain, particularly the wheat 

 arid pease, in filling and harvesting time, and 

 are supposed to consume not less than between 

 3,000 and 4,000 bolls of grain annually. 



But if the damage done by pigeons to the 

 community be so great, it is surely natural to 

 enquire what the profit is which they bring to 

 individuals, and whether that profit wtll balance 

 the mischief they occasion, The value of a 

 pigeon eote cannot be estimated,, at more than 



