38 FANCY PIGEONS. 



after. Otliers do so only at the beginning of tlie breeding 

 season, wben the weather proves unusually cold. Although 

 there is no way of knowing an egg to be such as will produce 

 a healthy young one, it may be told almost with certainty 

 that eggs of a certain appearance will come to no good. 

 Those that, instead of being smooth when laid, are very rough, 

 or of a honeycombed appearance towards one end, are gene- 

 rally bad, and though they contain the germs of a living squab, 

 it will generally die in the shell. Very small eggs have rarely 

 a yolk in them, and very large ones have generally a double 

 yolk. The latter almost invariably die during incubation, 

 though instances have been known of two healthy young ones 

 being hatched and reared from them. Good eggs have a 

 smooth appearance, and a few hours after being laid a round 

 air spot, usually at one end of them, will be observed on 

 holding them up to the light. The hen lays her second egg 

 forty-five hours after the first, or very nearly at two o'clock 

 on the third day, and this is an almost invariable rule when 

 all goes well. The first egg being replaced in the nest, 

 incubation then commences, and in seventeen complete days, 

 more or less, according to the weather, breed, and closeness 

 of sitting, the young are hatched. 



There is a great difference in the breeding powers of hen 

 pigeons, and those that lay oftenest during their first season 

 without any forcing, generally breed longer than such as lay 

 only twice or thrice in their first year. When a hen lays 

 single eggs to a nest, it is generally a sign that her pro- 

 creative powers are drawing to a close, or that she is being 

 unnaturally forced. 



When the eggs have been sat on for three full days, it 

 may be determined almost surely whether they are fertile or 

 not. When held against a strong light, the heart, and 

 blood vessels branching from it, of the embyro squab will be 

 clearly seen in a good egg. When no such appearance is 

 visible, the egg is bad, or, as happens occasionally, it has not 



