10(3 Pigeons and Aix About Them. 



period of incubation carried out by both parents, is the 

 determining cause of those changes of the crop secre- 

 tions which lead up to the production of Pigeon's milk. 

 Two days before the squabs are due to be hatched, that 

 is on the sixteenth cla}' of incubation, the crops of the 

 old birds will alwa3-s be found to contain soft food, and 

 immediately the squabs break through the shells and 

 make their appearance in this world of care and sorrow 

 the pellet appears. These are lubricated by mucous 

 secretion of the glands of the gullet, are raised by an 

 action similar to that of retchine, and immediately in 

 response to their call transferred to the beaks and crops 

 of the squabs. The marvellous manner in which a 

 young Pigeon increases in weight often affords cause 

 for wonderment, 3'et it need not when we consider the 

 great amount of food which its parents pump into its 

 crop. It seems almost incredible, but it is beyond 

 dispute, that the average quantity of Pigeon's milk 

 luimped into a young squab each time it is fed by its 

 parents amounts to no less than two-fifths of the body 

 weight of the young bird. Is it any wonder they 

 grow ? When a Pigeon is deprived of its 3'oung it 

 iias to swallow its milk, and this it sometimes can do 

 without any evil effects; but when, owing to any dis- 

 turbing cause, it is unable so to do, then crop sick- 

 ness ensues, but if the birds are treated as I recom- 

 mend above, the ill effects will be avoided, and the 

 milk, as it is formed, will enter into the stomach, be 

 absorbed, and afford nourishment to the body. For 

 three days when the old birds are in a healthy normal 

 state the young squabs are fed entirely upon the soft 

 food secretions of their parents. From the fourth day 

 onward to the eighth or ninth day, it will be found, 

 if examined, that the crops of the young birds have 

 within them a quantity of half digested and broken 

 grain, in addition to the Pigeon's milk, but from the 

 ninth day onward the supply of soft food is withheld, 

 and the crops are packed with grain entirely." 



The aiiahsis of Pigeon's milk made by ^Ir. F. J. 

 Hambly, of I'niversity College, Dundee, works out 

 something like the following; — 



