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 columbse, 
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, 
