37 



order ; at last examining more strictly, I found a horse-bean, and that not 

 a very large one, sticking in the lower part of the gullet, which, with some 

 little difficulty, I pulled out ; and this, I verily believe, was the only 

 cause of its death. 



61. — Pease, wheat, and barley are apt to scour your Pigeons too much, 

 therefore you ought to give them very little, if any, of this sort of food. 



62. — There is a sort of diet, called Scotch meat, which is pease, beans, 

 and tares mixed together, some people feed their Pigeons with this, 

 because cheap, but the beans are generally apt to be too large. 



63. — Hemp- seed, rape and canary are food that Pigeons are very fond 

 of, but by no means ought to be made their constant diet. 



64. — N.B. Even French tick beans are not proper for Dutch Croppers, 

 or any large cropt Pigeons, because they are apt to make them gorge. 



THE SALT OAT. 



65. — Being thus entered on the head of diet, it necessarily leads us to 

 consider a certain useful composition called by the Fanciers a Salt Cat, so 

 named, I suppose, from a certain fabulous oral tradition of baking a cat in 

 the time of her salaciousness, with cummin seed, and some other ingre- 

 dients as a decoy for your neighbour's Pigeons ; this, though handed down 

 by some Authors as the only method for this purpose, is generally laughed 

 at by the Gentlemen of the Fancy, and never practised. 



66. — The right salt cat therefore is, or ought to be thus made : Take 

 gravel or drift- sand, loom, such as the brick -makers use, and the rubbish 

 of an old wall, or for want of this a less quantity of lime, let there be a 

 gallon of each ; add to these a pound of cummin seed, a handful of bay 

 salt or salt petre, and beat them all up together into a kind of mortar, 

 mixing them up with stale urine, and your Pigeons will take great delight 

 in it. 



67. — The gravel or sand helps to scour their craws, and is of great 

 service to digestion. 



68. — The loom being of an unctuous, oily nature, is a very great 

 assistance to them in the discharge of their soft meat, or other meat when 

 they are feeding young ones. 



69. — The lime or rubbish helps to harden the shell of their egg ; and 

 you will find by experience, that when with egg they are prodigiously 

 fond of lime, and will have it some way or other, if possible. By this 

 means therefore you keep them from pecking the mortar off your own, 

 or your neighbour's houses, though the damage from thence accruing 

 cannot but be very trifling ; for the whole length of their beak, and farther 

 they cannot go, cannot reach far enough to loosen any tile that is naturally 

 firm. 



70. — The salt and urine is a great provocation to drink, and this is no 

 small service to your Pigeons, which are of a very hot nature. 



71. — The cummin seed, which has a strong smell in which Pigeons 



