32 FANCY PIGEONS. 



A mixture of grain can always be had from dealers who 

 make a specialty of supplying pigeon fanciers. 



Other kinds of grain used by fanciers are buckwheat; dari, 

 a white, tare-shaped grain from the Levant; rice; paddy, or 

 rice in the husk ; and mollah, a small East Indian blue-grey 

 pea mottled with brown spots. 



Pigeons are fond of all the seeds given to cage birds, such 

 as millet, canary, and hemp, but they are too dear for 

 general use, though they may be given as an occasional treat. 

 Hemp seed is very stimulating, and should be seldom given to 

 pigeons kept in close confinement. 



As pigeons at liberty eat freely of lettuce and such green 

 food, this may be supplied occasionally to those kept in con- 

 finement; but it is not an absolute necessity for them, and I 

 never give them such in the winter time. 



Mode of Feeding. 



I have already referred to the way pigeons may be fed in 

 lofts. When an outside flight, covered with gravel, is pro- 

 vided for them, the best way to feed them is to throw their 

 food on the ground, always provided they can see to pick it 

 up, which trumpeters, and certain heavily wattled pigeons can- 

 not do. For such hoppers must be provided. Supposing a 

 good many birds are kept, this will be the most expeditious 

 mode of feeding. Hoppers, to supply perhaps a hundred 

 birds, must be rather numerous, to prevent their constantly 

 quarrelling over them. More food is destroyed by feeding 

 from a flat board than from the ground, if it be kept con- 

 stantly supplied with clean gravel a few inches in depth. 



During the breeding season the birds should invariably be 

 fed early in the morning, not later than eight o'clock. If 

 food be left for them over night, they will go to it much 

 before this hour in the summer time ; but this is not 

 absolutely necessary. Forgetting to feed them for half a day 

 will cause the death of many young ones, not so much for 



