FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



361 



PiqEOfJ DEpvVTffi- 



MOORE'S WORK ON PIGEONS. 



(Continued from page 327.) 



In every nest you must put a straw basket, or earthen 

 pan, both which are made and adapted to this very purpose ; 

 for besides that by this means the eggs are prevented from 

 rolling out of the nest, you need never handle your young 

 pigeons, if you have a mind to look on them, which often 

 puts them into a scouring. Some like the basket best, as 

 judging it warmest, and not so liable to crack the egg when 

 first laid: others are for the pan, as not so apt to harbor 

 vermin, and say that the foregoing inconveniences are easily 

 remedied by giving them a sufficient quantity of clean straw 

 or frail. The frail is most valued because it lies hollow, 

 and will last a great while, for, when your young ones have 

 left their nest, 'tis but taking hold of the ends of the frail 

 and the dung will shake off it, and the frail be as fit for use 

 as before. 



As for your trap or aviary, it is always built on a platform 

 or floor of deals, on the outside of your house, that your 

 pigeons may have free passage into it. It is formed of laths 

 nailed so close together that the smallest pigeon can't make 

 its escape through it. Some build these very small, with 

 three doors, one on each side, which all draw up together 

 by pulling a single string, intending chiefly to catch stray 

 pigeons, whom they decoy into it, by strewing hempseed, or 

 rape, and canary, which all pigeons are very fond of. 

 Others build them very wide and lofty, so that four or five 

 persons may conveniently stand in them together, with a 

 shelf or two on every side, designing them to give room and 

 air to pigeons of the homing sort, which they are obliged to 

 keep confined ; this practice is of very great use, by keeping 

 such prisoners in a good state of health. 



In order to complete your loft, you must furnish it with 

 proper meat boxes, and bottles and stands for water. 



Tour meat box ought to be formed in the shape of a 

 hopper, as a reservoir for their food. It must be covered 

 over on the top, to prevent them from dunging among the 

 grain ; from hence the meat descends into a square shallow 

 box, fenced in with rails or holes on each side, to keep them 

 from flirting the grain over on the floor amongst their own 

 dung. 



Tour water-bottle should be a large glass bottle, with a 

 long neck, holding three or four gallons, and its belly made 

 in the form of an egg to keep them from dunging on it. 

 This bottle should be set upon a stand or three-footed stool, 

 made hollow at top to receive the belly, and let the mouth 

 into a small pan ; your water will by this means gradually 

 descend out of the mouth of the bottle, as your pigeons drink 

 it, and be sweet and clean, and always stop when the surface 

 of the water meets with the mouth of the bottle. 



The reason of which is this : the belly of the bottle being 

 entirely close at top, keeps off all the external pressure of 



the atmosphere, which, pressing hard upon the surface of the 

 water in the pan which is contiguous to that in the bottle, 

 is too potent for the small quantity of air which is conveyed 

 into the belly of the bottle with the water, and which con- 

 sequently, as being the lighter matter, rises to the top of the 

 bottle as it stands in its proper situation ; but the water 

 being sucked away by your pigeons, that it no longer touches 

 the mouth of the bottle, the confined air exerts its power, and 

 causes the water to descend till they become contiguous as 

 before. 



THE METHOD OP MATCHING OR PAIRING 

 TOUR PIGEONS. 



Tour loft being thus finished and equipped, my next in- 

 structions shall be, how to match or pair your pigeons to- 

 gether ; and here we must observe, that though they are 

 very constant when mated to each other, seldom or never 

 suing a divorce, except when either of them grow sick or 

 very old, yet it is sometimes very difficult to make them 

 couple to your liking. 



The best way therefore to effect what you desire on this 

 head, is to erect two coops, usually called by the fanciers 

 matching places, close together ; let the partition between 

 be made of lath, that they may see each other, and you may 

 easily contrive it so that they may both eat and drink out 

 of the same vessels ; feed them often with hempseed, which 

 will make them salacious, and when you observe the hen to 

 sweep her tail and show to the cock, as he plays in the other 

 pen, you may then put her in to him, and they will soon be 

 matched. 



But if, for want of this convenience, you are obliged at 

 first to put them both into one coop, always put the cock in 

 first, for three or four days or a week, and let him get master 

 of the place, especially if the hen be a virago, or else they 

 will fight so much as perhaps may settle in them an absolute 

 aversion forever after ; but if the cock be first master of the 

 house he will beat the hen, if obstinate, into compliance. 



Tour pigeons being thus matched, turn them loose into 

 your loft, and let them choose what nest they best like ; or, if 

 you have a mind to fix them to any particular nest, you may 

 effect it in this manner: make a lath machine, the length 

 of your breeding places, closed in at top and bottom with 

 boards, and projecting out as far as your loft will conveni- 

 ently allow; one of your top boards must lift up with hinges, 

 in order to put in meat and water ; this you may hang before 

 any hole, and put your pigeons in it, and when they have 

 been five or six days used to the nest, take it away — in the 

 night is the best time — and they will keep to that nest. 



The same method may be used, and is very good, to pre- 

 vent your strain being adulterated by a false tread, which 

 an over salacious hen will often submit to. Therefore keep 

 them up by this method till the hen has laid both her eggs, 

 then take it away and give them their liberty, till the hen 

 has fed off her soft meat, then the hen will begin to be sala- 

 cious again, therefore at that time confine them as before, 

 and you are sure to keep your strain pure and entire. This 

 method is somewhat troublesome, and therefore not worth 

 using but for your best pigeons ; as for those who breed for 

 the dish, 'tis no matter whether they are bastardized or not. 



TO KNOW A COCK PROM A HEN. 



Having thus informed you how to mate or pair your 

 pigeons, I shall next give you some instructions how to form 

 (To be continued.) 



