t 



308 Nature-Study Agriculture 



brown eggs, generally used for cooking, are of good flavor. 

 Guinea hens are good layers. 



Pigeons The many different breeds of domestic pigeons are all 



believed to be descended from the wild rock doves of 

 Europe and Asia. They are known to have been in 

 domestication for at least three thousand years. Hom- 

 ing pigeons were formerly much used for carrying 

 messages. A few pigeons are often kept as pets, and in 

 larger numbers they are made a source of profit through 

 the sale of squabs (young pigeons). The parent birds 

 take turns in sitting upon the two eggs, and when the 

 young are hatched they give them a partly digested 

 food from their crops, called " pigeon milk." Pigeons 

 free to fly find much of their own food and require little 

 care, but when kept confined they should be fed several 

 varieties of grain, and they should be supplied with 

 green feed, shell, and rock salt. 



The colony Caring for poultry. When only a few dozen chickens 

 method and are k e pt on a farm where they have an abundance of 



the intensive J 



method of range to forage over, they require little care. But where 

 poultry several hundred or several thousand fowls are kept on 

 a small area, they must be carefully handled. There 

 are two methods of managing large numbers of fowls : 

 one is to separate them into small flocks (colonies) and 

 scatter them over the farm as far apart as possible, 

 each colony having its own little house and range ; the 

 other is to keep them all in one house or in several houses 

 close together (the "intensive" method), with little 

 if any range. By the colony method a great deal of 

 freedom is allowed the chickens, and they are more 

 easily kept in a healthy condition. But the work is 



