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PIGEONS AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 19 



NEST MATERIAL. 



HE very best material for nests is tobacco stems, not the 

 great coarse stems, but the smaller ones, that can bo 



gotten at any cigar factory. With a basis of lime, a 



nest of stems, and a little dusting of the nest with Dalmatiou 

 insect powder one need pay little heed to insects. 



Of course the bath is a great adjunct, and in a city where 

 there are water works, it is astonishing to see how cheaply a 

 few gas pipes and a common galvanized iron pan can be turned 

 into a good fountain. 



This fountain should always be put in the air coop if pos- 

 sible. A bath on the loft floor is all right if one can do no 

 better, but a bath in the air coop, after whicli the birds can 

 sun and stretch out on the sand and gravel, is far better. 



But to reveit to nests, if the fancier cannot get tobacco steins, 

 there is nothing better than pine shavings, of which all in- 

 sects have a horror. Given a basis of pine shavings, the birds 

 may be allowed to use any kind of twigs, broom straw or any- 

 thing that has no hole in it. Hay is about the worst thing 

 that can be used, as the little red mites ask nothing better in 

 which to breed. Straw is even worse than hay. But if the 

 fancier can do no better, he can allow the birds to use any- 

 thing that is handy and trust to lime and insect powder for 

 the rest. 



I said that I suggested a single tier of nest boxes around 

 the wall of the loft, and one reason is that it makes mating 

 so much more easy. And not only that but it '* locates" the 

 birds wheie the owner wants them. If 18 inch nests are used 

 the three foot portable mating coop comes in handy. 



To make it, take any kind of a wire front (and they can be 

 had in any city where there have been shows) and put a top 

 on it of the same length. Then use a partition wire for each 

 end and you have a coop, with no back or bottom, that can 

 be slipped along the floor in front of any t\\o nests. 



