138 RING PIGEON, OR CUSHAT. 
Vice versa. When first excluded, the young are 
blind, their skin of a blue or livid colour, thinly co- 
vered with a harsh yellow down. In this tender 
state, they are long and assiduonsly brooded over by 
the parent birds, and are fed with a milky pulp, eject- 
ed from the crop, where the food undergoes a par- 
tial digestion, prepai'atory to its being given to them. 
As they gain strength and become fledged, food is 
more frequently supplied, and, consequently, from 
its not remaining so long in the craw of the old bird, 
in a less and less comminuted form, till at length, 
previous to their finally quitting the nest, it is ad- 
ministered in a state but little altered from that in 
which it is first swallowed by the old birds. 
The Ring Pigeon breeds twice in the year, viz. 
in spring, and again in autumn, a cessation taking 
place during the greater part of June and July, be- 
ing a period of comparative scarcity, the seeds of 
such plants as they principally subsist on not having 
then ripened or attained perfection. The autumnal 
brood, on account of the more effectual concealment 
of the nests by the now matured and thick foliage 
of the woods, is always more abundant than that of 
spring, and, in favourable distrijtts, gi-eat numbers an- 
nually escape. In certain seasons, the young pro- 
duced in autumn are subject to a peculiar disease, 
which destroys many of them even after they have 
quitted the nest. It appears in the form of large swel- 
lings or imposturaes, upon the feet and head, which, 
rapidly increasing, at length deprives them of sight 
