Pigeons and Dovks. 27 



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 vevy 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 wider 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 empt3\ 



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. 



