PIGEOXS AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 4o 



WHERE TO BUY. 



NOW that we have considered what kind to buy, let us 

 take up the question as to where to buy; and this 

 opens up another wide field. Not every man who 

 advertises the best birds, at the lowest price, is able to deliv- 

 er the goods. Xot every man who is willing to sell you a great 

 lot of grand birds for a song, because he is going to move or 

 something, is the man with whom you should treat. 



When you read the advertisement of a man who breeds fifty 

 kinds of birds, and breeds them all up to the standard, don't 

 waste time with him. He can't do it. 



It takes a very smart man to breed one kind up to what 

 it should be. 



I mean this advice for those who want good birds. If a man 

 simply wants a few pigeons, and don't care what they are, 

 then by all means let him go to the first bird store and get 

 them. 



They will be cheap in price, and, if he don't care much 

 svhat he gets, " he will get it. ' 



But the fancier who has decided to breed one variety, and 

 \vlio intends to breed up, and not down, should turn to the 

 pigeon papers, and read carefully the cards of the various 

 breeders who breed the particular variety he fancies'. Then 

 let him write to each one, and take his time to go carefully 

 over their replies. 



Don't, for Heavens sake don't, get a Standard, and carefully 

 describe the standard bird, and then write u I want ( so many) 

 pairs of bkds just like the above. They must be just like it 

 or I don't want them. If they are as above I will give you five 

 (eight or ten, as the case may be ) dollars per pair for them." 



The chances are that the fancier to whom you write 

 would willingly give fifty dollars ]?er pair for such birds him- 



