28 



MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 



the open flight. I put in one corner of the flight a 

 lidless box on its side, witli a handful of ha}' in the 

 bottom for the little birds to nestle in. The box 

 is a good size, and acts as a sort of shelter. By 

 these precautions you will notice the )'oung are 

 kept on entirely dry flooring for some time after 

 they leave the nest (for if the weather is wet and 

 cold they are not even allowed to leave the shelter), 

 and this I regard as very important. Young birds 

 are given to squatting much on the ground when 

 first they leave the nest. If they do this on ivet 

 ground what can )-ou expect? A chill follows, the 

 young . one becomes very relaxed, the parents, 

 realising that it is not quite healthy, promptly will 

 have nothing to do with the poor thing, and it 

 just weakens and dies. In doves, and in animals 

 also, the healthy dislike the sick; they feel that a 

 weakling is better dead. The survival of the 

 fittest is to them one of the first laws of nature. 



After a time the young ones get able to fl}' up 

 on to the barrier, and then it is perhaps better to 

 take it awa)', taking care to have the bath covered 

 over and no deep water pots, for fear of any 

 accident from drowning. Unless you have a spare 

 house that you can give up almost entirely to your 

 young birds of the )fear, it is better not to move 

 them for some time after they are able to do for 

 themselves. 



Young birds are very nervous ; they will fly 

 straight at the wire, and perhaps maim a leg or 

 a wing for life, on seeing a stranger, and, there- 

 fore, if j-ou are wise you will allow no visitors in 

 the aviary during the nesting season, for birds are 

 quick to notice anj'one unknown to them, and one 

 terrified young bird may cause no end of damage 

 both to itself and to other nesting birds. 



Indeed, at all times it is as well to be careful 

 who sees your birds. Children are always a risk, 

 also anyone wearing very light clothes or who will 

 point out a bird they notice with a stick or 

 umbrella. Who can wonder if the poor inmates 

 mistake it for a gun? Or, again, if a lad)' comes 

 adorned with a many-headed fur, or a whole parrot 

 mounted in her hat, can }'Ou blame the birds if 

 they are frightened? I remember once being 

 asked if two people staying in the town could see 

 my birds. I said "Yes," and they duly came. 

 The lady wore a hat with a bright emerald green 

 dyed Ringneck Parrakeet — head, beak, body and 

 tail — standing straight up in it. The young man 

 had no more sense than to try to rouse my poor 

 grey parrot (who was ill with inflammation) by 

 blowing at it through the cage. I do not think 

 either of these people cared for birds — they were 

 merely passing the time by coming — but it was 

 their first and last visit, for the birds were terri- 

 fied. So, at the risk of being thought unkind or 



selfish, stand up for your birds' comfort, and have 

 the courage to say "No" politely when you deem 

 it desirable to refuse a request to "see the birds." 

 Some people, of course, it is a pleasure to take 

 round, but they are mostly people who are con- 

 siderate or who have kept birds themselves, and 

 so understand them. 



When the j'oung birds leave the nest they should 

 be carefully watched to see that the other doves 

 do not molest them. Several times I have lost 

 promising young ones in this way. Sometimes I 

 have found the parents will look after one )'Oung 

 bird — usually the first out of the nest — and neglect 

 the other. There will be little hope for }'ou of 

 rearing the forsaken young one. Some few times 

 I have hand-reared the hardier kinds by giving 

 them a little yolk of egg and milk thickened with 

 oatmeal, just dipping the beak into it, and, of 

 course, after the bird has fed, taking care to keep 

 it warm ; but I doubt if a bird so reared would 

 ever be very strong, and to have any chance at 

 all it must be taken in hand early, before it gets 

 too weak.* 



I have a pair of Barbary doves I keep as foster 

 parents, for, suppose they lay, and another rare 

 dove laj'S at the same time, and you know the 

 latter is a bad sitter, 3'ou can easily change the 

 eggs. This year my Barbary doves brought up a 

 neglected young Dwarf Turtle, just a day or two 

 old, with their own young one, who was about the 

 same age. But it is this point that is the diffi- 

 culty. I do not pretend to fully understand it, and 

 it would be most interesting if someone would 

 make a series of careful observations, but, as is 

 well known, whilst doves are sitting, just before 

 hatching, the soft food prepares in the parent 

 birds' crop to feed the j'oung one, and is ready by 

 the time of hatching for that purpose. As the 

 voung one grows the food thickens. 



Now suppose you place some eggs under a Bar- 

 bary that were laid and sat on a few days previously 

 to their own, what would happen? The strange 

 eggs would hatch before the soft food was ready in 

 the foster parents' crop, and the young would die 

 of starvation. If, on the other hand, the eggs 

 hatched some few days after the soft food had 

 been ready, the chances are the young would not 

 be fed, though whether this is because the food 



*1 have lately gained further experience in hand feeding. For food 

 1 should give Malt Milk, pepsinated meal (both Spratt's) mixed with 

 water as directed ; both are in powder form hke flour. Besides the?c 

 "soft food," mixed with powdered biscuit and moistened, and later 

 soaked and crushed small seeds. For a feeder use a shaped and 

 rounded quill tooth pick, pushnig the food off the quill with the right 

 lore finger. Hold the nestling with your lett hand, letting it stand on 

 a flat surface, the beak between the base of the first and second finger. 

 Held in this way the young one thinks the parent's beak is cnelosini; 

 its own, and will open its beak naturally for food. A young dove 

 taught me this accidentally. Put your nestling on a bed of hay coveted 

 with flannel in a flower pot, placing perforated zinc over the top, and 

 put the pot on hot pipes or a flat hot water bottle. Feed every two 

 hours, from about 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. 



