FEEDING OF THE YOUNG. 39 



Very little trouble is likely to happen with most varieties 

 of pigeons, which, if only provided with proper food for them- 

 selves, will take the sole responsibility of the young ones. For 

 this reason we strongly advise that, whatever the preference 

 may be, every beginner should only keep such birds for the 

 first season, during which he will gain experience of their ways 

 and habits. There is a wide variety of such breeds in Jacobins, 

 Dragoons, Antwerps, and any of the so-called " Toy " pigeons, 

 except the short-beaked Turbits and Owls ; the pretty Fantails 

 also feed well. But some varieties, either from being very 

 highly in-bred (such as Carriers and Pouters), or some me- 

 chanical difficulty in their very short beaks (such as Barbs and 

 Tumblers), are " not good feeders," and require coarser birds as 

 nurses. Flying at liberty very much mends this state of 

 things ; and Dr. Ginsburg once told us that he found his Carriers, 

 which were first-class in quality and points, though only kept 

 for private recreation, fed their young with no difficulty, being 

 left to fly round a country house. But in the aviary help is 

 needed for such birds after the first week or so, during which 

 nearly all pigeons can feed their young. Here, however, we 

 are met by another distinction between the management of 

 pigeons and of poultry. A fowl will be a good mother to a 

 brood that hatch the very day after the eggs are given to her ; 

 but it will readily be understood that if you give pigeons eggs 

 which are due to hatch too soon, a supply of soft food will not 

 be secreted, and the young must perish if left to unassisted 

 nature. On the other hand, if eggs were exchanged which 

 were not due till some days after the nursing pigeons would 

 have hatched, the birds would in most cases go " sick," as it is 

 called, for a few days at the proper time, after which the supply 

 would go off. For these reasons it does not answer, as a rule, 

 to exchange the eggs, unless those of both the breeding birds 

 and the nurses hatch within a day of one another. It is also 

 better, as a rule, for the squeakers to have the food of their own 



