The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book 



food up to six months old. After this, when they be- 

 come mature and fitted for the duties of maternity, the 

 meat becomes firmer and dryer. Although flying about 

 and apparently of mature age, they may still utter the 

 call of the squab known as "squealing," and at this time 

 may be separated from the general flock and put 

 through a course of fattening by which they are made 

 as fat and delicate as though just from the nest. 



The French are adepts in this practice, as they are 

 also in the fattening of all poultry. The food generally, 

 given is millet, with a slight mixture of hemp-seed, 

 tares, and very small peas. These are allowed to soak 

 in water until swollen, when the expert takes a small 

 quantity in his mouth, takes the young pigeon in his 

 hand, inserting its bill into a corner of the movtth, and by 

 the assistance of the tongue inducing it to take the soft- 

 ened grain. It is soon taught to enjoy this plan of 

 feeding, and the crop is quickly filled. 

 • Pigeons treated in this manner soon become plump 

 and round and make most excellent eating. In place of 

 millet, hemp, etc., the variety of oatmeal known as pin- 

 head oatmeal, conibined with coarsely ground cornmeal, 

 would make superior material for such feeding. 



They should be kept confined and not allowed to fly, 

 and may be fed two or three times a day at regular in- 

 tervals, experience teaching what intervals are most de- 

 sirable. Persons desiring to pursue such a course of 

 feeding, and living near large markets, could, by fre- 

 quenting the wholesale departments during the summer 

 and early fall, find plenty of material to experiment 

 with, as every lot of pigeons sent to market at such times 

 xontains more or less young birds, and most of them 

 could be greatly improved, in fact doubled in value, by 

 a systematic course of feeding. 



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