38 



THE PKACTICAL PIGEON KEEPER. 



owu young, beginning -with a kind of pap, or soft food, -wrluch is 

 secreted by tte crops of both parents at the date of hatching. 

 It closely resembles curd in both appearance and composition, 

 so that the " pigeon's milk " so often ridiculed is no myth, but 

 a veritable product. It is pumped up by a kind of vomiting 

 action, and greedOy swallowed by the young, who insert their 

 beaks into the mouth of the parent for the purpose. A young 

 pigeon's beak, by the way, is thick, soft, and fleshyin appear- 

 ance so long as the soft food lasts. By degrees half-digested 

 peas or other grain are mingled with the curd, until at last the 

 grain is fed pure, and only a little soaked in the crop. Here 

 will be seen the reason of a somewhat softer diet during the 

 breeding season, very old beans or peas obstinately refusing to 

 dissolve, and thus starving the young. If all goes well, how- 

 ever, the diet gradually becomes harder and harder, until the 

 young pigeon is able to pick up for itself. 



When the young thrive, they grow with a rapidity which is 

 amazing. You can in simple truth almost see the daily increase; 

 and if you cannot, something is wrong. The growth of a chick 

 is nothing to it. Mr. Dixon found a young pigeon to weigh as 

 follows : — 



The last weight exceeded that of the parent, and the figures are 

 very significant if we compare them with the weight of a 

 chicken of the same ages. Mr. Dixon accounts for such extra- 

 ordinary growth by the fact that the young pigeon is so help- 

 less as to be quiet all the time, and has two digestions at work 

 for it besides its own — a reason which is no doubt true. Any 

 way, the fact leaves the fancier in no doubt how his birds avH 

 getting on : they are either goMopiTtg on, or likely to " go home." 



