COUNTRY MANSIONS. 363 



enclosure be surrounded by a thick hedge, or if it contain clumps or thickets 

 of shrubs, their nests will commonly be found there. 



446. Houses for aquatic fowls. — Where only a few geese and dixcks are 

 kept, one house will be sufhcient for them, provided it be divided into three 

 parts ; one for the common lodging-place, one for laying and sitting, and the 

 other for fattening. No other furniture or fittings-up are requisite than boxes 

 for the laying and sitting- house ; those for the ducks maybe 18 in. wide, and 

 2 ft. long; and those of the geese proportionately larger. It may be here 

 observed, that, in order to keep ducks and geese, it is not necessary to have 

 either large deep ponds, or running water- A basin of a few yards in diame- 

 ter, and deep enough to admit of their swimming in it, will be found quite 

 sufficient, provision being made for a frequent supply of fresh water. Where 

 geese are kept in any quantity they require a yard by themselves, and an 

 extensive range of pasturage, as they are fond of grass, and it appears essen- 

 tial to them ; and as, when confined with other fowls, they become very 

 pugnacious and very much harass hens and turkeys. 



447. Fowls may be kept on a small scale, so as to supply the family with 

 eggs, by purchasing hens in a laying state, and furnishing them with a port- 

 able wooden house, containing a sufficient number of nests ; placing this in a 

 warm situation, as in a stable or cow-house, or adjoining a kitchen or other 

 room having constantly a fire in it ; and contriving free ingress and egress 

 from the public road, or from some extensive space, in which the fowls can 

 run about and find vegetables and insects. Besides this house for laying in, 

 there would require to be another adjoining it, and of the same size, with 

 perches for the fowls to roost on : a wooden house 6 or 8 feet high, and about 

 the same length and breadth, would be sufficient for roosting ten or twelve 

 full-grown fowls, and one of half that size would be sufficient for containing 

 nests for them. A very common mode in which small fowl-houses of this 

 description might be heated is by a pipe of hot water, communicating with 

 the cistern at the back of the kitchen fire ; and many other methods might be 

 suggested. In short, if the reader will bear in mind, that the common fowl, 

 in order to lay abundance of wholesome eggs, reqvures abundance of farina- 

 ceous food ; an extensive range of surface for exercise, and for picking up 

 green meat, insects, worms, and other animal food, and the small stones 

 and gravel necessary for digestion ; and that when the fowl is not in active 

 exercise, it should be in a temperature of between 50° and 60°, he will be at 

 no loss for contrivances not only to keep fowls, but to insure an abundant 

 supply of eggs during the winter season. Fowls should also always have 

 access to mortar, lime-rubbish, or chalk ; as if they have not, they will lay 

 eggs without shells. 



448. The pigeon-house, or dovecot. — The common pigeon, of which there 

 are many varieties, may be kept in a small house, in a manner similar to 

 common fowls ; but it succeeds better in buildings somewhat elevated, or in 

 low buildings in which the place of entrance is made in the roof; because 

 pigeons fly higher than any other domesticated birds. A very convenient 

 situation is a loft over some other building, or when there are various out- 

 buildings, a turret may be added where it will have a good eftect in an archi- 

 tectural point of view, and the interior turned into a place for pigeons. All 

 the filing up requisite is to place nests against the wall ; these nests consist 

 of open boxes, about a foot square, with the lower side projecting 3 or 4 



