Practical Bird-Keeping. — III. Pigeons and Doves. 195 •

Housing.


Most doves are hardy and can stand our winters if some

protection in the shape of cover is given. Of course the severity

of the winter varies in different parts of the country. Here in

Nottinghamshire we get our share of cold (up to 28 degrees of

frost sometimes) though not very far north.


As a rule, doves do not seem to care much for heat, and in

my largest aviary they prefer roosting under the glass roofed

part of the flights to going in the shelters, where they would get

some heat from the stove in the passage that runs along the back

of the aviary. As it is, this fire is of little or no benefit to them,,

but it is a necessity on other accounts, namely, keeping the

stored food-stuffs from damp, and giving heat to some parrots

and squirrels who live in cages in the passage, also it is very

useful to have heat in case of sickness.


If you have room, therefore, give your birds as long a

flight as possible, with plenty of cover under a sheltered roof, for I

do not think it advisable to encourage the birds to roost in cover

that has only wire netting above it, for it must mean that on a

wet night the birds are often sleeping wet through. I put plenty

of bare perches in my open part, but, though the birds use them

in the daytime, at night they nearly all go into the cover under

the glass roofed part of the flight, and looking in from the front

of the aviary you would almost think it empty.


The best cover to use is Scotch Fir branches fastened with

nails and wire to the aviary walls. It makes the aviary look very

pretty, and can easily be renewed when necessary; further, the

branches being off the floor it gives more ground room, and the

mice cannot so easily climb up it. I find the Scotch is the only

fir that keeps its “needles” well ; if this cannot be had pea-sticks

can be used, laid crossways, but nothing is so nice as the fir.


My doves much enjoy a broad wooden shelf running along

the front of the inside of the aviary, about half-way up from the

ground. They spend most of the day on it, basking in the

sun in summer, or enjoying, with uplifted wings, a shower of

rain. A good wetting like this does them good in the daytime,

and is quite a different thing to birds roosting wet through.


A bath is a necessity, for doves are very fond of bathing.



