The uses of pigeons in cookery are well known. The young ones only are selected for this purpose; and they are generally taken just before they are fledged. There is a mode of enticing pigeons to resort to and reside in any place, by putting there what is called a "salt cat." This is made of loam, old rubbish and salt, and is a substance they are so fond of that instances have been known of farmers having thus deprived their neighbours of their whole stock of pigeons. But, by act of parliament, this practice is now rendered illegal. The shooting of pigeons is also an offence against the law. With respect to the formation of pigeon-houses, it may not perhaps be generally known that, although a lord of a manor may build them on his own land parcel of the manor, and a freeholder on his own ground, yet a tenant cannot do this without his lord's license. Pigeons are generally considered an injurious stock to the farmer, as they subsist almost wholly on grain, and devour, in the course of a year, infinitely more than would amount to their own value. There are more than twenty different varieties of the domestic pigeon, of which those called carriers, tumblers, croppers, and powters, are perhaps the best known. 153. The CARRIER PIGEON, which is easily distinguished from others by a broad circle of naked white skin round each eye, and by the dark bluish colour of its plumage, is remarkable for the celerity and certainty with which it has been known to convey letters from distant parts. This arises from the natural attachment which the birds have for the places where they have been bred. The mode of employing them is to take them to the spot whence intelligence is to be brought, to tie the letter under their wing, and let them loose. They rise to a great height into the air; then, by an unaccountable instinct, they dart onward in a direct line to their home. The rapidity of their motion is such that they have been known to fly at the rate of near thirty miles an hour. 154. _The RING DOVE_ (Columba palumbus) _is a species of pigeon known by its cinereous plumage, the tail feathers being black on the hind part, the first quill feathers being whitish on the outer edge, and the neck white on each side._ _It is common in our woods, and is also found in most other parts of Europe._ These birds differ from the last in the habit of constructing their nests on the branches of trees, and particularly on those of the fir-tree, and not in holes of rocks and buildings. As they are of considerably larger size than the domestic pigeon, and, whilst young, are almost equally good for the table, several attempts have, at different times, been made to domesticate them, by hatching their eggs in dove-houses under pigeons; but it has always happened that as soon as they were able to fly, they have escaped to their natural haunts in the woods.