SICt. I'll. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 2JI 



5 1. yearly. Many of them are not worth so 

 much, 1 know some gentlemen, who have two 

 or three pigeon cotes in their possession, which, 

 never yield them 200 pairs in a year. The 

 value of their annual produce, therefore, must 

 fall short of the value of the grain they con- 

 sume, to the amount of nearly 2,000 1. If, then, 

 the advantages derived from this species cf pro- 

 perty must be purchased at such an extensive 

 rate, must not this be a good reason, if not for 

 their total extirpation, at least for diminishing 

 their numbers? 



h is some consolation to the farmers, how- 

 ever, that pigeons are not now so plentiful as 

 formerly. Gentlemen seem not to set so high 

 a. value upon this species of stock as they once 

 did. Many of the pigeon houses have been 

 suffered to go to ruin. Proper attention is not 

 always paid to keep them in repair, and this is a 

 temptation to the pigeons to desert them. Even 

 those which are kept in good order, are not in 

 general so rich and well stocked as they once 

 were. This circumstance has been imputed by 

 some to the pickled wheat which they devour 

 at the time of sowing. Cramming themselves 

 full of grain soaked with brine, and crusted 

 round with lime, may have the effect, it is sup- 

 posed, of killing many of them. 



