rArama aitd bbeediko. 



ceases in the old ones. It is a ciuibus 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 the curd 

 from which the whey has been pressed, seems to contain any 

 sugar, and does not run into acetous fermentation. The pro- 

 perty of coagulating is confined to the substance itself, as it 

 produces no such effect when mixed with milk." It is to be 

 hoped, after this explanation, that big stupids will, in future, 

 cease to send little stupids on that venerable first-of-Aprfl 

 errand, " a pen'orth of pigeon's milk." 



Inserting their own beaks into those of their infants, the 

 parent pigeons proceed to pacify the hungry little maws with 

 this nourishment ; — pure, for the first five or six days, and then 

 gradually amalgamated with hard food, until their stomachs 

 grow strong enough to digest whole graius. 



If the chicks, from some unhappy accident, should be left 

 orphans, you may — if you are not over-delicate — rear them 

 by hand, or rather by mouth ! This may be done by manu- 

 facturing a pap of beans or com by grinding it up with your 

 teeth, and then taking the squab's beak between your lips and 

 letting hiTTi feed. I don't know what my readers wiU think of 

 this, but my deliberate opinion is that it is extremely nasty, 

 and I would see the most valuable squab, that ever was bom, 

 dead, and buried in a pasty, before I would wet-nurse him in 

 the way above described. 



If the squab should die, it will be necessary to provide the 

 old birds with, at least, one belonging to a neighbour^ other- 

 wise, the nourishment in their crops will turn sour and make 

 them ill. If, however, a strange squab is not at hand, the 

 next best thing is to keep the bereaved parents on the wing 

 as much as possible, supply them, when at home, with a mix- 

 ture of bread crumbs and salt, and strew their house with good 

 sharp gravel. 



Sometimes the new-bom bird will not have sufficient strength 

 to break entirely from the shell : you may, in such a case, 

 gently assist biiin with some convenient instrument — say the 

 blade of an ivory paper-knife. Should both parents chance 

 to desert their eggs, you may throw them away at the expi- 



