OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



called cote-pigeons. Their maintenance costs more 

 because they must be fed all the year round ; but in 



compensation they 

 do not ravage the 

 neighboring har- 

 vests, which cannot 

 be said of the rock- 

 pigeons; and beside 

 they are much more 

 productive, their pe- 

 riods of laying num- 

 pigeon"" bering as many as 



ten a year. Modified from the earliest times by 

 man's intervention, the cote-pigeon includes a num- 

 ber of varieties 

 in which the 

 traits of the 

 primitive species 

 are often no 

 longer recogniz- 

 able. Let us men- 

 tion some of 

 these. 



" First of all 

 are the pigeons 

 with feathered 

 legs and feet, 

 looking as if they 

 wore gaiters. This Pouter Pigeon 



growth of feathers reaches to the very tips of the 



