My Foreign Doves and Pigeons. 



Young Violet Dove. 



CHAPTER I. 



This little book must 

 not be considered in any 

 other light than that of a 

 simple hand-book, treating 

 only of those doves and 

 pigeons I have actually 

 kept. Most of these birds 

 are within the reach of 

 any amateur, and can be 

 procured in England (if 

 you watch your oppor- 

 turity), at a seasonable 

 time and a reasonable price. In many instances 

 the birds described have bred in English Aviaries, 

 and nearly all are hardy. 



I have not attempted to give any scientific 

 description, but just to recount the ordinary daily 

 life of my own birds, and, where I could gather it, 

 the experience of others, and also some short notes 

 on the wild life of the birds. 



Doves as a family have much to recommend 

 them. They are hardy, long-lived, and show their 

 contentment in captivity by frequently nesting and 

 rearing their young. If their colouring is quiet, 

 it is also singularly harmonious, and the blending 

 of the different shades is as refined as it is beauti- 

 ful. Where could you find anything more lovely 

 than a cock Violet dove in perfect health and 

 plumage? He is an object to feast one's eyes on 

 for long — and yet to look again. 



Then another interesting feature about doves 

 is to study their different calls, for each bird has 

 several — to be able to distinguish between the war- 

 cry note and the soft coo of the cock, telling the 

 hen his little love story. They can express their 

 moods as surely as a human being, and to interpret 

 this is a study in itself. 



It is nearly 13 years ago since I started keeping 

 doves, beginning, as I suppose was only natural, 

 with our old friends a pair of Barbary doves. At 

 this time dove keeping was a singularly lonely 

 hobby — many people kept foreign birds, but not 

 doves. Most of my experience was learned in the 

 sad school of adversity, for little was written (that 



was accessible to me) on the subject. I had Dr. 

 Greene's "Notes on Cage Birds" and Dixon's old 

 "Dove Cote and Aviary," but that was about all. 

 A year or two before, however, I had read in The 

 ■ Feathered World an article by the late Mr. O. E. 

 Cresswell on his foreign doves. How I longed to 

 possess all the kinds he described, never for one 

 moment thinking I should keep in the future nearly 

 every one of these, and many more besides. 



And here let me pause just a minute to note a 

 very pleasant side of bird keeping — I mean the 

 many friends your birds will make for you — and 

 in one and all there is the same trait, a kindly and 

 generous fellow feeling in a mutual hobby. A 

 chance question, and reply, on a little Turtle dove 

 was the beginning of a long and valued friend- 

 ship with Mr. and Miss Cresswell, and when he 

 died I felt as if I had lost my earliest dove-loving 

 friend, for of all his beautiful birds his doves, I 

 think, were his favourites. 



First, before I describe the birds, I must begin 

 and tell you a little of how, and where, I keep my 

 doves, so I will start with a short description of my 

 aviaries. They are all different types. ^ 



No. I is my original doves' aviary. It is about 

 ig ft. long by 12 ft. wide. The north and east 

 sides are built against high walls ; on the west 

 the half-inch wire netting comes right down to 

 the ground, but on the south it is boarded up for 

 two feet. On this last side is a porch with double 

 doors, the outer one of wood, the inner one of 

 wire. A great drawback to this aviary is the lack 

 of sunshine, owing to the fact that so many trees 

 are growing round it, but at the time I used it for 

 doves (it is now the home of a Crowned Crane) 

 this did not seem to affect their health in any way. 

 A shelter, with a door into the flight, runs across 

 the eastern end. It has wire in front to within 

 two feet of the ground and a small wire-covered 

 window faces the south. The shelter is white- 

 washed inside. 



When first this aviary was put up, the floor of 

 the flight was earth, the top of it wire-netting. 

 Rats began to make their appearance, so the flight 



