built on the lioor, etc. 



In the middle of the house, on the floor, place an egg- 

 crate or other light structure, tacking it lightly to the floor. 

 This serves two purposes. On it place hay, grass, straw, etc., 

 to be used by the birds in building their nests. It also serves 

 as a wind-break. It modifies the force of the air blown by 

 the wings of the pigeons as they fly from their nests out 

 through the windows into the pen. Were it not there, the 

 floor would be swept clean by the force of the wind from 

 the wings. 



There should be a layer of sawdust one to two inches 

 thick on the floor of the house. This prevents the nappies 

 from being broken if by birds' quarreling they are pushed 

 out of the nests. On a board floor they would break when 

 they drop, but the sawdust lets them down easy. The saw- 

 dust also makes an easy resting place for those birds that 

 prefer to build their nests on the floor. There always will be 

 two or three of these pairs of pigeons in every house. 



The nest-boxes should be perfectly plain, made of simple 

 boxing in the manner described. Do not build up a piece 

 of boxing at the front part of the nest to prevent the nappy 

 from being, pushed out. Early in our experience we built 

 a few nests in this way but soon changed them over to the 

 simpler form, on account of the xiifificulty of keeping them 

 clean. The droppings bank up at the front of such a nest- 

 box and it is almost impossible to clean them thoroughly. 



Two sizes of nappies should be used. The small one is 

 the size known as No. 6, seven inches in diameter across the 



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