CHAP, ii.] SETTLING THE BIRDS. 53 



have them back again ; the bill is paid, and I feel 

 assured that you are a respectable tradesman." 



" Thank you, sir," he rejoins with a bow ; "and you 

 may believe that it would give me the greatest pleasure 

 to assist you in recovering them ; but it is not to this 

 place that they have returned. I bought them of 

 parties who are strangers to me, and I really do not 

 know where to apply to hunt them up for you." 



At this you look very blank, and a little sceptical ; 

 which calls forth the remark, " If you doubt my word, 

 sir, you are welcome to look round and see. John ! 

 take the gentleman backwards, and show him all the 

 Pigeons we have on the premises." 



You have no more to say, and depart. A fortnight 

 afterwards, passing the shop of some other dealer, you 

 observe Pigeons offered for sale, so exceedingly like 

 those you had a little while ago, that you are struck 

 with admiration at the certainty and perfection at which 

 the art of breeding has been brought of late years. 



But Pigeons must be made to form an attachment to 

 their home, before they can be safely trusted with 

 liberty. One great inducement to them to stay where 

 they may happen to be brought to, is to find them- 

 selves in the midst of an old-established society ; for 

 though monogamous, they are eminently social. But 

 the founder of a new settlement of Doves is not pos- 

 sessed of this means of temptation wherewith to allure 

 strangers. A common plan is to clip the feathers of 

 one wing, with newly-purchased birds, in the expecta- 

 tion that the interval between that time and their next 

 moult will be sufficient to reconcile them to a strange 

 home, especially if they can be induced to breed mean- 

 while. But the operation does not always answer in 



