PIGEOXS AXD ALL ABOUT THEM. 33 



A simple rat guard can be made by any tinner and if there 

 is only one entrance from the air coop or the outer world, to 

 the loft, it is absolute protection. 



Take galvanized iron six inches wide and make a square 

 that goes entirely around the window or opening that is used. 

 The top should slope down and the sides out and the bottom 

 down. It will be seen that a rat cannot hold his feet if he 

 jumps or climbs down from the eaves. He cannot crawl up, 

 nor can he get around the sides. To make this so plain that 

 any one can make a rat guard, a ide view of a loft with a 

 rat guard would look like figure 7. 



The loft is now protected from enemies without and it rests 

 with the fancier to keep it in that condition. 



Sometimes the fancier who has taken especial pains to keep 

 insects out of his loft, fondly imagines there are none there 

 because he does not see them. 



But there is a dark red or brown insect that moves so rapid- 

 ly through the feathers as to keep well out of sight even 

 when a bird is looked over. 



To find if they are in the loft, go into it just about dark 

 any evening and watch the actions of the birds that are stand- 

 ing. If they shift rapidly from one foot to the other and 

 seem to " stamp '' you may be sure that these pests are there 

 and if there at all they will soon be there in countless numbers 

 for they breed with alarming rapidity. 



For two years I have used a simple and most convenient 

 remedy, the ordinary moth ball. These can be had at any 

 drugstore and cost only about ten cents per pound and no 

 insect or parasite can stand them. 



Put two or three under each nest and their fumes will soon 

 permeate the stems and enter into the feathers of the nesting 

 birds. As the cocks and hens change nesting hours they will 

 both soon be entirely free from insects. Put a couple right 

 into the nest with birds just fledged and they will work equally 

 well and protect them as they grow. 



