30 



pressing hard upon the surface of the water in the pan, which is contiguous 

 to that in the hottle, is too potent for the small quantity of air, which is 

 conveyed into the belly of the bottle with the water, and which conse- 

 quently, 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 con- 

 tiguous as before. 



(Brent.) — Country gentlemen, when, they keep iPigeons usually build a dovecot as I 

 have described in my former paper when writing about the dovehouse Pigeons, and 

 these are usually tenanted by conimon birds. 



(Brent.) — In towns vrhere the flying Pigeons are kept, the loft under the roof of the 

 house, or some out-building, is their frequent abode ; this should be floored, and the 

 skirting well secured against the entrance of rats and other vermin. From the rafters 

 shelves may be suspended and divided into nests, or as some prefer these on the ground, 

 they may be made in pairs all round the floor ; light should be let in through a glass 

 window at the end, or a skyhght in the roof, and an opening should be made in the 

 roof with a trap-door of some sort, that a person may occasionally put his head and 

 shoulders out to look about. A platform of boards must be laid for the Pigeons to 

 alight on, at the entrance, and on this should be placed their aifery or trap, which is a 

 framework of laths, with three doors, letting down and pulling up with a cord ; on the 

 top of the trap several square holes of about four inches wide are left, which are called 

 " tipping holes ;" and at the sides of the trap at each corner are wires, suspended on a 

 pivot, which fall against a small ledge that prevents their swinging outwards, these are 

 called " bolting-wires." The tipping-holes and bolting- wires are always useful to aUow 

 any pigeon to enter from without when the trap is closed, though no pigeon can get out 

 of them when rightly made at least it very rarely happens ; and such traps are in con- 

 stant use, by means of which the owner has always command over the Pigeons, and 

 can shut them up, let them out, or catch any he pleases on the shortest notice. The 

 loft should be provided with a "hoppeir" or meat-box so constructed that it supplies a 

 trough at the bottom as long as there is any food in the box; the trough must be 

 guarded by wires, or the Pigeons are apt to knock the corn over and waste it. The 

 water should be placed in a large earthen fountain or water-bottle : the best forms are 

 those that are made like a large round bottle, inverted in an earthen stand, with holes 

 all round for the Pigeons to drink from : metal fountains are very objectionable ; iron 

 may perhaps be an exception. 



(Brent.) — ^The " salt cat" is good for all Pigeons, and should be placed in ajar with 

 holes all round for the Pigeons to peck through, and covered vsdth a lid. It is thought 

 by some that Pigeons injure a roof, but the damage they do is so very trifling, if any, 

 that it is scarcely worth notice ; they cannot possibly loosen any tiles by pecking, 

 though by running over an old roof they may occasionally shake down a tile, or slate, 

 that was previously loose, but which wovdd of necessity have fallen the next high wind 

 had the Pigeons not been there ; the mortar they eat is only that which time and the 

 weather has crumbled and made soft, and which would be washed down by every 

 shower. A bath is good for Pigeons, and ihey take great delight in washing, but it is 

 not necessary for them always to have it, and it should be so placed that their splash- 

 ing may do no harm. Green food, too, is beneficial for them : they will eat almost any 

 sort of smooth-leaved greens or lettuce. The best food for Pigeons are small beans or 

 old tares, but where they have plenty of exercise almost any sort of grain will do, pro- 

 vi led it is occasionally changed. It is almost impossible to describe the inside arrange- 

 ments of a loft, so various are tastes, and so much does it depend on circumstances ; 

 but the Pigeons must not be too crowded, and each pair must have two nests. Some 

 prefer earthen pans for them to breed in, others let them nest on the boards or in boxes, 

 but in either case the nest should be somewhat secluded, and the nest, as well as the 

 whole loft, often cleaned out. Birch twigs and heath or heather I consider the best 

 materialB for the nest, though straw will do. I like the Pigeons to build their own 



