PREFACE 



IV launching tliis. my second work on Pigeons, on the 

 troubled >ea ..I" liicratuns I should perhaps tell why 

 tin- spirit has moved mi- to do so. First, my first 

 \\ork was i-rude in the extreme, and I left untold many 

 Illinois thai .should have been handled. Again I feel that I 

 ha\e learned many t h ing.s si nee ls ( ,l, the year of publication 

 t' tin- tiist \\ork, and why should I not give my fellow 

 fancier* tin- benelit of m\ ex perience. While there maybe 

 .some of them who " knew it, all" many years ago, and have 

 not adsorbed an idea since, I am frank to admit that I leara 

 something about pigeons every day. I expect to up to the 

 day of my death. There is no teacher like experience, a,nd 

 all 1 ma\ say in this work will be based on what I know my- 

 srlf from experience, The love of pigeons was born in mo. 

 For forty-live long years I have had pigeons of some fcind. 

 and what I may have to say will be the result of countless 

 hours spent in watching the beautiful pets in my own lofts, 

 the lofts of other fanciers, and in the show rooms. The 

 pigeon has always interested me ever since my childhood, 

 and even now in my old age as I often whirl along on trains, 

 and ]> ass some modest house, against the stable of which is 

 nailed a crude little pigeon box, the very appearance of 

 \\hich stamps it as the work of boyish hands, my heart goes 

 out to the little fellow, who perhaps owns his first pair of 

 'ommon pigeons, and who loves them with that absorbing 

 love that we old fanciers only, can uudei stand, and I find 

 m\self wishing that the train would stop, so that I could 

 see him. take him by the hand, admire his poor little birds, 

 and hid him God-speed. 



'The lo\e of pets begets love of ones fellow men. A general 

 love draws all mankind together, and that is one reason why 

 I do not hesitate to attempt this book, for the good hearts 

 of my fellow fanciers, will cause them to overlook all mis- 

 takes and excuse the errors to which we are all prone, and 

 lay them to the head, and not to the heart. 



FRANK M. GIIYBERT. 



