as 



for every pair ; for the more room they have, the more quiet they will 

 sit, and breed the better ; I once knew a gentleman, who could not raise 

 three young ones out of nine pair of breeding pigeons all the spring, and 

 for above three months after, only by keeping them straitened in too 

 narrow a compass : Whereas, about the latter end of August, or beginning 

 of September, he moved them into a larger loft, and the same pigeons 

 bred well, even then, and through the most part of the winter. The 

 reason of this inconvenience is this, salacious cocks will often be playing 

 to, and disturbing the others as they sit, and others who want room to sit 

 will fight for nests, and by this means destroy both eggs and young ones. 



23. — To make your breeding places, you may erect shelves of about 

 fourteen inches broad, allowing eighteen inches betwixt shelf and shelf ; 

 for otherwise your tall powters, by being forced to crouch for want of 

 height, will get a habit of playing low, and spoil their carriage. In these 

 shelves erect partitions at about the distance of three feet, fixing a blind 

 by a board nailed against the front, on each side of every partition ; by 

 this means you will have two nests in the length of every three feet, and 

 your pigeons will sit dark and private. You may if you please, fi_x a 

 partition between each nest, to prevent the young ones from running to 

 the hen, when sitting at the other end, and cooling her eggs ; for in breed- 

 ing time, when the young ones are about three weeks old, the hen, if a 

 good breeder, will lay again, and leave the cock to take care of, and bring 

 up the young ones. 



25. — 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 harbour 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. 



26. — 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 hemp-seed, 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, wdth a shelf 



23. — See J. M. Eaton's Almond Tumbler, paragraphs 531, 532, and 533. 

 25. — Ibid, paragraphs 537 to 641. 



