40 FANCY PIGEONS. 



as those of a washed-out or mealy hue, such as is too often 

 the case with many of our yellow pigeons, and attention to 

 this will be no uncertain indication of the quality of colour 

 that will be developed in due time in a newly hatched squab. 

 When a week old, the young ones will be well stubbed over 

 with feathers, which in another week will have begun to 

 break, and give a good idea of colour and marking. If, 

 during this time, a daily increase in size be not observed, 

 or if one keeps getting behind the other, something is wrong ; 

 but unless the want is evidently from lack of food or 

 warmth, nothing can be done with squabs so young. The 

 bowels or digestive organs are out of order, and they seldom 

 come right. The young of all small and hardy pigeons are 

 as big as their parents at from four to five weeks old, when 

 they will leave the nest and soon begin to feed themselves. 



Feeders. 



Feeders, such as common pigeons, Dragoons, Antwerps, 

 and the strong and coarse specimens of fancy varieties, are 

 used as nurses for the more choice breeds, and, although 

 there is much misunderstanding as to the powers of even 

 really good birds in their ability to successfully rear their 

 own young, feeders may be advantageously made use of in 

 many instances ; but so long as good birds perform their 

 natural functions, as the great majority are well able to do, 

 it is but natural to allow them to do so. 



When feeders are employed, the eggs of the good birds 

 may be given to the feeders, if of the same age, or if one 

 or two days older; but it is not safe to risk any greater 

 difference in the age of the eggs, because, if hatched before 

 their soft meat comes on them, the feeders will not feed 

 them as a rule. In changing young ones, let them be a few 

 days older than those they replace, and they will have so 

 much additional care. When young birds are well feathered 

 it is often unsafe to change them, as the feeders begin to 



