PIGEON SHOOTING. 151 



accustomed to the siirromidiug scenery before tliey have acquired 

 sufficient strength of wing wherewith to lose themselves^ will 

 become perfectly domesticated. 



In a room or loft appropriated to the rearing of pigeons, the 

 shelves should be placed sufficiently high for security against 

 vermin, a smaU ladder being a necessary appendage. The usual 

 breadth of the shelves is about twenty inches, with the allowance 

 of eighteen between shelf and shelf, which will be quite enough 

 not to incommode the tallest bnds. Partitions bstween the 

 shelves may be fixedat the distance of about three feet, making a 

 bHnd, hj a board nailed against the front of each partition, where 

 there will be two nests in the space of every three feet ; so that 

 the pigeons wiU sit in privacy, and not be nable to disturbance. 

 Or, a partition may be fixed between each nest; a good plan, 

 wliich prevents the young from running to the hen, sitting over 

 fresh eggs, and perhaps occasioning her to cool and addle them ; 

 for, when the young are about a fortnight or three weeks old, a 

 good hen will leave them to the care of the cock and lay again. 



Pood and water should be given to pigeons in such a mamier as 

 to keep them from being contaminated with du-t of any kind. 

 Earthen pans may be used for this purpose ; but there are neat 

 meat-boxes and water-bottles made for the purpose, ^yhich are 

 excellent things, and preseiTC great cleanliness m feeding. The 

 meat-box is formed in the shape of a hopper, covered at the top to 

 keep the grain clean, which descends into a square hollow box. 

 Some fence this ofP mth rails or holes on each side,_ to keep the 

 grain from being scattered over ; others again leave it quite open, 

 that the young birds may the more readily find it for their food. 

 The water-bottle is a large glass bottle with a long neck, holding 

 from one to five gallons ; it is belly-shaped like an egg, so that 

 the pigeons may not alight upon, and soil it. It is placed upon a 

 stand or three-footed stool, made hoUow above to receive the belly 

 of the bottle, and let the mouth into a small pan beneath ; the 

 water will gradually descend out of the mouth of the bottle as the 

 pigeons drink, and be sweet and clean, and always stop when the 

 surface reaches the mouth of the bottle. 



The Stock-Bom {Gohmba (Enas, Linn.) There is considerable 

 •uncertainty about the identity of this bird. Bewick calls it the 

 tcild-pigeon ; and Colonel Montague ike rock-clove, ox rockier ; and 

 he says that ornithologists seem to differ concerning the rock and 

 the stock pigeon, though it appears almost impossible to conceive 

 them a distinct species. In those described under such names, 

 there seems to be so much similitude, except what may be ex- 

 pected from a species half reclaimed, and frequently returning to 

 their natural wild habits again, that we cannot but consider them 

 as one and the same species. Bewick rather coolly says, that the 

 stock-dove, rock-pigeon, and wood-pigeon, with some small dif- 

 ferences, may be included under the same denomination. The 

 wood-pigeon ought to be taken entirely out of this class, because it 



