S32 C O L U M B A, 
The diilentper called the fmall-pox, which breaks out- 
in eruptions or puftules, full of yellow matter, on their 
bodies, wings, and legs, is cured by opening the puftules, 
and applying burnt alum and honey, or touching them 
with Roman vitriol. When pigeons are lick, heavy, or 
drooping their wings, give them once a-day a couple of 
fpiders rolled up in butter. When they are lame, or the 
.ball of their foot /welled, either from coid, or being cut 
with glafs, or other accident, fpread fome Venice turpen¬ 
tine on a piece of brown paper, put it to the part aft'ebted, 
and it will heal in a few' days. 
The flefh-wen is a flefhy tumour which arifes on the 
joints of the legs or wings; this may be either opened or 
cut off; if opened, take out the kernel and wa/h it with 
-alum-water; if cut off, the part may be healed with ai¬ 
med any halve. The bone-wen is a hard tumour, grow¬ 
ing alfo upon the joints; but is very rarely cured, and 
the bird affedled with it will not breed. Some attempt 
to cure it with a mixture of black foap and quicklime; 
but if this is buffered to lie on too long, or be made too 
ftrong, it will eat off the leg, or any other part where it 
is applied, it being a flrong cauitic. The core is a malady 
fo called from its relemblance to the core of an apple ; 
it is hard, and ufuaily of a yellow colour, interlperfed 
with red, and is moftly feated in the anus or vent. This 
mud be ripened; to effeft which, keep the pigeon open, 
by giving it a gentle purge of tobacco, a l'mall quantity 
will do ; this will fometimes make them difeharge the 
core ; if not, when ripe it mud be drawn out. 
Thefe birds, particularly the common fort, are fre¬ 
quently afflibled with /'cabs on the back and bread, which 
make the old ones fo weak that they cannot fly abroad in 
fearch of food, fo that they abfolutely darve the young 
ones; the following recipe is recommended as a cure: 
Take a pound of dill-feed, a pound of fennel-feed, and 
the fame quantity of cummin-leed, an ounce and a half 
of afla feetida, a quarter of a pound of bay-falt, and of 
common fait the lame quantity. Mix thele ingredients 
with fome fine clean clay, together with a fmall quantity 
of flour. This being prepared, bake it in tw'o pots, and 
fet it on a Hand in the pigeon-houle, and the birds will 
continue to pick it till they are cured. 
Pigeons are, for the mod part, nouri/hing food, fome- 
what binding, drengthening, and provoke urine; they 
are looked upon to be good for cleanfing the reins, and 
to expel the grofs matters that dick there. As a pigeon 
grows old, /o proportionably does its fle/h become drier 
and more folid, harder ofdigedion, and apt to produce 
grofs and melancholy humours ; and hence it is that fome 
authors have condemned the ufe of pigeons, and edeem 
them as bad food. They agree at all times with any age 
and conditution; but thofe that are melancholy, or cho¬ 
leric, ought to make ufe of them more moderately than 
other perfons. 
Of all domedic fowls, pigeons are confefledly the mod 
decorous, pleaflng, and vivacious. The wanton dalliances 
prabtifed by this bird during the time of its court/hip, is 
in a manner very engaging and peculiar to it; whence 
the poets feigned it to be the fyrnbol of love. The cock, 
when falacious, will, by a voice at that time exceedingly 
fvveet and plaintive, and by feveral endearing and pretty 
geltures, woo the female, and endeavour to gain her af¬ 
fections; die, when complying, foon difeovers it by her 
motions, as fpreading her wings, nodding her head, and 
/weeping her tail; from hence they proceed to billing, 
that is, the hen puts her beak into the cock’s, who ap¬ 
pears as it feeding her; after this (lie will fquat, and im¬ 
mediately receives his favour, by which file is rendered 
prolific ; they will then feek for a nefl, or fome convenient 
place to depofit their eggs, into which they will carry 
fuch neceffaries as bed /hit their purpofe; fome making 
a good ned, others hardly any at all. When the hen is 
near the time of her laying, the cock will follow her from 
place to place, not allowing her to be at peace any where 
iiutjnher ned; and, during the whole time of incuba¬ 
tion, he takes regularly his turn of fitting. After a pi¬ 
geon has laid her fird egg, (lie refts a day between, and 
on the following day lays another: is is enftomary for 
them to ftand over the fird egg, which is termed irregu¬ 
lar incubation, till the fec'ond is laid, and then fit clofe, 
that both young ones may be hatched nearly at once: 
though fome will fit clofe on the fird, and by that means 
bring one young one two days fooner than the other. At 
the end of nineteen days the breeder fhould be careful to 
obferve whether the eggs are hatched or not ; for it fome¬ 
times happens in cold weather, or when food is fcarce, 
that the old ones do not fit clofe, and the young ones, 
for want of a due warmth, have not drength fufficient to 
extricate themfelves out of the' fhell, and fo perifh for 
want of air and proper nourifhment; for the fuffenance 
it received from the albutnen of the egg, is by this time 
exhaufled, or dried up. Whenever this happens, and the 
egg appears to be cracked or chipped with the exertion 
of the young one, break the fhell all round, and help the 
little captive to get free. 
In fabulous hiltory we are told, that the pigeon was the 
favourite bird of Venus. Homer fays it was the office of 
pigeons to provide for the nourifhment of Jupiter; this 
fable takes its rife from the fame word, which means, in 
the Phoenician language, either a pried, or a pigeon ; for 
it is allowed that the curetes, or prieds of Cybele, took 
care of the nourifhment of Jupiter. The people of Afca- 
lon had fuch a veneration for pigeons, that they durd not 
kill and eat them, led they fhould feed on their own gods : 
and they were particularly careful of all thofe that were 
produced in their city. The Affyrians alfo confecrated 
pigeons, becaufe they had a notion that the foul of their 
once famous queen Semiramis had taken its flight to hea¬ 
ven in the fhape of a dove. Silius Italicus relates, that 
two pigeons formerly refled on Thebes, and that one took 
its paflage to Dodona, where it gave the oaks the virtue 
of delivering oracles; the other, which was white, flew 
over the fea to Libya, where it perched between the two 
horns on the head of a ram, and gave oracles to the people of 
Marmorica. Philodratus fays, that the pigeon of Dodona 
alfo delivered oracles: that it was of gold, feated on aa 
oak, and attended by a concourfe of people who came 
thither, fome to confult the oracle, others to facrifice. 
Sophocles alfo informs us, that Hercules received aa 
oracle from the pigepns of the foreil of Dodona, which 
foretold the period 6f his life. 
The prefent exifting laws For preferving and protebling 
pigeons are as follow: Every perfon who fhall fhoot at, 
kill, or dtfiroy, a pigeon, may be committed to the com¬ 
mon jail for three months, by two or more juftices of the 
peace, or he ftiall pay twenty (hillings to the poor of the 
parifn. i Jac. c. 27. By 2 Geo. III. c. 29, any perfoa 
who fhall wilfully fhoot at, or deftroy, any houfe-dove, 
or pigeon, belonging to other perfons, fhall forfeit on 
conviblion twenty fhillings to the profecutor; and if not 
forthwith paid, the offender may be committed and kept 
to hard labour for any time not exceeding three months, 
nor lei's than one month, unlefs the forfeiture be fooner 
paid; the owners of dove-cots, or other places built for 
the prefervation or breeding of pigeons, and thole ap¬ 
pointed by them, excepted. Offender is liable only to 
one conviblion for the fame offence ; and prol'ecutions 
are to be commenced and carried on with effebl, within 
two months after the offence ; and, where perfons fuffep 
imprisonment, they are not liable afterwards to pay the 
penalty. To ileal wild pigeons in a pigeon-houfe, fhut 
up fo that the owner may take them, is felony. 1 Ha-vjk. 
P. C. c. 33. A lord of a manor may build a pigeen-houfe, 
or dove-cot, upon his land, parcel of the manor; but a 
tenant of the manor cannot, without the lord’s licence. 
3 Salk. 248. Formerly none but the lord of the manor 
or the parfon might erebt a pigeon-houfe; though it has 
been fince held, that any freeholder may build a pigeonj- 
houfe on his own ground. Rep. 104. Cro. Eliz. 
COLUM'BA (St.), in allufion to whofe name the ifland 
of 
