Practical Bird-Keeping. — III. Pigeons and Doves. 163


devoted to the study of embryology, heredity, hybridisation, and

the habits of animals, and some of his most curious and notable

results were obtained from the crossing of different species of

Doves. Born in 1842, he studied and took his degree at Bowdoiu

College in 1868, after travelling and studying at various Univer¬

sities abroad, he held several educational posts, and was, at the

time of his death, head of the Department of Zoology at the

University of Chicago, a post to which he was appointed in

1892.



PRACTICAL BIRD-KEEPING.



III. FOREIGN DOVES.


By Miss Rosie Alderson.


The keeping of foreign doves and pigeons has never been

a very popular branch of aviculture, though many more people

keep them than in former years; and yet they are birds that have

many advantages, being long-lived, hardy (with a few exceptions)

and very adaptable to confinement. In many cases they will

rear young whilst in captivity, and a nesting bird is, to my think¬

ing, a contented bird ; it shows that the old life of liberty is to

some extent only a memory and not a regret.


Though I have kept, and still have, many other kinds of

birds, yet I have gone in chiefly for keeping doves, and, at one

time and another, have had more than 40 varieties.


The Fruit Pigeons are so seldom to be had, and so rarely

kept, that there seems little to say about them. They vary very

much in size, and are often most beautiful in their colouring,

many of them being green, with perhaps a touch of purple or

yellow. They need boiled maize as their staple food, prepared

freshly every day, for it soon turns sour, and this is rather a

drawback to keeping them, as any bird-food that has to be

cooked is a certain amount of trouble.


In giving a list of such doves and pigeons in each family

that axe generally kept, I have thought it well to add some very

brief notes on the colouring of the plumage for the purpose of

identification. Setting, therefore, the Fruit Pigeons aside, as



