29 



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 prac- 

 tice is of very great use, by keeping such prisoners in a good state of 

 health. 



27. — In order to complete your loft, you must furnish it with proper 

 meat boxes, and bottles and stands for water. 



28. — Your 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. 



29. — Your water-bottle should be a large glass bottle, with along 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 wdll 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. 



30. — 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 



* 26. (J. M. Eaton.) — ^Witli a small private cupboard, to take a wee drop with 

 these four or five brother Fanciers for " Auld Lang Syne/' should the mornings be cold 

 and frosty ; or, vice versa, to quench the thirst, should it be hot or oppressive when 

 their coppers are hot. 



27 to 30. — See J. M. Eaton's Almond Tumbler, paragraphs 550 to 557. 



(Bkent.) — The best mode of furnishing a loft for Pigeons between the spars of an 

 outhouse roof. The first thing to be done is to lay a floor, if that is not already there, 

 and to secure every crevice and corner in every direction against the inroads of any 

 vermin, from a mouse to a cat ; this done, a door is made for the convenience of in- 

 spectirig the birds and cleaning them out. An opening must be made to admit of the 

 egress and ingress of the Pigeons, and also to admit light ; this opening should be on 

 the south or south-west side, if convenient, about a foot from the floor. The opening 

 should be provided with an alighting board or platform for the pigeons to pitch on, and 

 protected by a lathwork trap, or some sort of lattice door, which can be closed at plea- 

 sm-e if it is required to capture any of the birds or to confine new ones, permitting 

 them to see the exterior a few days before they have their liberty. The exterior being 

 thus completed, the interior can easily be furnished with shelves about eight or nine 

 inches broad, and secured to the rafters at about eighteen inches above each other, the 

 interstices between the rafters, roof, and back of the shelves should be fitted up with 

 pieces of board, and a ledge about three or four inches high in front will convert these 

 shelves into troughs, eight or nine inches broad, and three or four deep, which are to be 

 divided into nests by nailing an upright partition against each rafter ; every second 

 partition shoidd project about five or six inches beyong the front ledge to prevent one 

 pair from taking the whole row, whiclx they wUl otherwise do. At the intermediate 

 partitions it wiU be as well to place a shoii; perch or roost about an inch and a half 

 square, and about eight or nine inches long, which will facilitate the passage of the 

 rightful owners from one to the other of their own pair of nests, and serve as a resting- 

 place for the old birds, and being placed on a level with the upper ledge of the front 

 ledge, it wiU be a convenient position to feed their young from. The nests should be 

 made of stout weU- seasoned wood, planed smooth, and all crevices stopped so as not to 

 harbour any insects. This arrangement is intended for the inside of a slanting roof, 

 and I have found it anpwer exceedin«lv well. 



