1 88 "A-S PIGEONS FEED THEIR YOUNG. 



the old ones, and of course will no more be found in the 

 crop of the young, 



" It is a curious fact that the parent pigeon has at first 

 the power to throw up this curd without any mixture of 

 common food, although afterwards both are thrown up 

 according to the proportion required for the young ones. 

 I have called this substance curd, not as being literally so, 

 but as resembling that more than anything I know ; it 

 may, however, have a greater resemblance to curd than 

 we are perhaps aware of; for neither this secretion, nor 

 curd from which the whey has been pressed, seem to 

 contain any sugar, and do not run into the acetous 

 fermentation. The property of coagulating is confined to 

 the substance itself, as it produces no such effect when 

 mixed with milk. This secretion in the pigeon, like all 

 other animal substances, becomes putrid by standing, 

 though not so readily as either blood or meat, it resisting 

 putrefaction for a considerable time ; neither will curd 

 much pressed become so putrid as soon as either blood or 

 meat." 



Selby says,* " The young remain in the nest till they 

 are able to fly, and are fed by the parent birds, who 

 disgorge into their mouths the food that has undergone 

 a maceration, or semi-digestive process, in that part of the 

 oesophagus usually called the crop or craw." - 



Colonel Montagu appears to be one of the few original 



" Illustrations of British Ornithology." 



