72 FANCY PIGEONS. 



I believe there is a limited trade for supplying the London 

 markets with hand-fed or crammed pigeons, but the chief 

 towns in this country are supplied almost exclusively direct 

 from field dovecotes. Purchasers may know how to select 

 young and tender birds by the presence of yellow down on 

 their neck feathers. 



When the value of the manure from a few pairs of common 

 pigeons, kept in an aviary, is taken into account, this, in 

 addition to the value of the young ones they produce, will 

 pay for the food they consume. The manure may be kept 

 in barrels, each layer, of an inch in depth, being covered 

 with a similar layer of dry earth, siftings of ashes, or road 

 scrapings, which will deodorise it, and make a very rich com- 

 post, worth several pounds a ton. I have seen capital crops 

 from very poor soil, on which such a compost has been thrown, 

 some three or four times as thickly as Peruvian guano is 

 generally spread. 



