244 



THE DOVECOT PIGEON. 



with exultation, as he showed me the chegoes' nests 

 which he had grubbed out ; would have formed a 

 scene of no ordinary variety. 



Dogs are often sorely tormented by the chegoe ; 

 and they get rid of them by an extremely painful 

 operation. They gradually gnaw into their own 

 toes, whining piteously as they do it, until they get 

 at the chegoe's nest. Were it not for this singular 

 mode of freeing themselves from the latent enemy, 

 dogs would absolutely be cripples in Guiana. 



But it is time to stop. I have penned down 

 enough to give the reader a tolerably correct idea 

 of one of the smallest, and, at the same time, one of 

 the most annoying, insects, which attack both man 

 and beast in the interminable region of Guiana. 



NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE DOVECOT 

 PIGEON. 



" Aspicis ut veniant ad Candida tecta columbae, 

 Accipiat nullas sordida turris aves." Ovid. Tris. 



See, to the whitewash'd cot what doves have flown I 

 While, that unwhitewash'd, not a bird will own. 



By this it appears, that the old Romans paid con- 

 siderable attention to the raising of pigeons. 



Our common dovecot pigeon is only a. half-re- 

 claimed bird ; not being sufficiently domesticated to 

 be deemed private property in the strictest sense of 

 the word. Thus, I may rise any quantity of these 

 pigeons; but, if they should forsake my dovecot, 



