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f 102 
PIGEONS. 
-mm 
are reared during the season. The young are fed for some 
days after exclusion from the egg, not on grain, nor insects, but 
upon a peculiar lacteous secretion, or curd-like matter, which 
is poured out from a series of glands in the crop both of the 
male and female, which glands develope themselves into 
activity by a mysterious law at the proper juncture. This 
lacieous fluid is very abundant, and will frequently drip from 
the bills of the pigeons as they approach their young. It is 
thrown into the open mouths of the nestlings by a kind of 
exgurgitation, the receiving one and the giver being both in 
agitation. In the course of a few days, pulse or grain, 
moistened in the crops of the parents and mixed with this 
lacteous curdy fluid, is given, the secretion gradually decreas¬ 
ing as it is less and less required, till at length peas, moistened 
or macerated in the crop, are alone transferred into those of the 
young. 
About the third day, some of the ordinary food, after mace¬ 
ration in the crop, is added, its proportion being increased, till 
at length, when the young quit the nest, it constitutes their 
food entirely. 
Though fancy pigeons are kept for the sake of their beauty 
and peculiarities, the ordinary dove-house pigeon is reared 
almost exclusively for the sake of its flesh, which is accounted 
in most countries a delicacy. But how far the rearing of great 
numbers of these birds is profitable in our country may admit 
of question; the quantity of peas, beans, and grain, which 
even a small flock will annually consume, is enormous. 
What, then, must be the consumption of flocks of many 
hundreds? 
DISEASES. 
The megrims , or epilepsy, is an incurable disorder, in which 
the pigeon moves about and flutters at random, with its head 
turned, and its bill resting upon its back. 
If the birds sutler much while moulting , remove them to ~ 
