90 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



stock. Seeds are occasionally given to pigeons, as a 

 warming and stimulant diet, but according to my expe- 

 rience they greatly prefer rape and canary to hemp seed. 

 It has been remarked, that beans, sodden in salt-water, 

 scour pigeons equally with new beans, and, in a voyage, 

 suffering them to drink sea-water will soon kill them; al- 

 though so generally benefitted by salt, an excess of it is 

 fatal, as it is also to vegetation, promoted as that is by a 

 moderate quantity. 



In most publications on the subject of pigeons, a danger- 

 ous mistake has been made in a term applied to beans. 

 Small tick beans are recommended instead of small horse- 

 beans. Now, the tick or kidwell, (in the western phrase,) 

 are the larger of the two common field varieties, and be- 

 side being inferior in quality, are too large for pigeons, 

 which have been sometimes choked even with the com- 

 mon-sized horse beans; on which account, the smallest 

 possible 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, not as a constant diet. The 

 same of seeds. They yet prefer wheat. The strong scent 

 of cummin and flavour of coriander seeds are said to have 

 an alluring effect upon the olfactory nerves and palate of 

 these birds; as also the scent of asafcetida, and other 

 powerfully odoriferous drugs; and that the use of fumiga- 

 tions of such, in the dove-cote, will not only attract the 

 pigeons to their home, but allure strangers, which may be 

 wandering in search of a habitation. 



The last dietetic, or rather, perhaps, medicinal article 

 necessary to be described, is the salt-cat, so called from 

 some old fancy of baking a real cat with spices, for the 

 use of pigeons, which, however, I never observed to eat 

 animal food. In compliance with this custom, I caused to 

 be placed in the middle of the pigeon-loft, a dish of the 

 following composition: loam, sand, old mortar, fresh lime, 

 bay-salt, cummin, coriander, caraway seed, and allspice, 

 moistened into a consistence with urine. The pigeons 

 were constantly pecking at this, and were in a constant 

 state of good health; how much of which may be attri- 

 buted to the use of the cat, I cannot determine; but, cer- 

 tainly, they are extremely fond of it, and if it have no 

 other merit, it prevents them from pecking the mortar 

 from the roof of the house, to which otherwise they are 

 much inclined. The cat was mixed and heaped up in the 

 dish, a peace of board being placed upon the summit, to 

 prevent the birds from dunging upon it; when become too 

 hard it was occasionally broken for them. 



The regular old formula for this cat is as follows: 

 gravel or drift-sand, unctuous loam, the rubbish of an old 

 wali, or lime, a gallon of each— should lime be substituted 



for rubbish, a less quantity 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. 



Many fanciful and groundless tales may be found in old 

 books, relative to the medicinal and remedial properties 

 of almost every part of the pigeon; thus much, however, 

 may be relied on, their flesh, when young and in good 

 condition, is a nourishing and stimulant diet; that of the 

 full aged pigeon more substantial, but harder of digestion, 

 and, in a considerable degree, heating. The general rule 

 of colour affecting quality in the flesh, holds good in tame 

 pigeons. The black and dark feathered are proportional- 

 ly dark or brown fleshed, of high flavour, inclining to the 

 game bitter of the wild pigeon. The light colour in the 

 feathers, denotes light and delicate flesh. Their dung is 

 of an extremely heating and drying quality, whether as a 

 manure, or for medicinal purposes. It was, in former 

 days, a principal ingredient in nitre-beds, when that art i- ' 

 cle was almost entirely manufactured at home. 



Carriei'S, horsemen, and dragoons, are travellers or mes- 

 sengers, and I have occasionally seen tumblers turned off, at 

 the distance of forty miles from home. The carrier, it is, 

 said, has performed a journey of forty miles in an hour and a 

 half, and of even ninety miles in three hours. A dra- 

 goon has flown seventy-six miles in two hours and a half: 

 this ancient fancy of flying pigeons had declined, but has, 

 it seems, revived within a few years. The admired quali- 

 ties in the tumbler are excessive high flight, so as to be 

 almost imperceptible to the keenest eye, in fine and clear 

 weather; perseverance in their flight for many hours to- 

 gether, and tumbling over and over repeatedly during their 

 ascent and descent. 



In 1S25, the Society of Amateurs at Antwerp sent ninety 

 carriers to Paris, to fly for a prize. They were started 

 from the French capital at seven in the morning, and by 

 noon of the same day, thirteen of them had reached home. 

 The first arrived at half-past eleven o'clock. 



By what kind of natural qualification birds are able to 

 explore their way across such immense distances of land 

 and sea, seems to mock all human powers of inquiry: and 

 granting (he accuracy of ancient relations in respect to 1 1 1 < - 

 regular and successful use of pigeons as messengers, it ap- 

 pears to be one of those ancient arts said to be buried in 

 the grave of time, which has not hitherto encountered 

 resurrection. The present price of a pair of carriers is 

 about six guineas. 



By my memoranda, in 1801, I observe, that sixty-live 

 pairs of old pigeons, and one hundred and forty squeaker* 

 of all sizes, regularly fed, consumed in one week, five 



