24 



Fancy Pigeons. 



not like to lay iu their last nest. Common hardy birds gfenorally go to 

 nest when their j'oang ones are about a fortnight or eit^hteen days 

 old, and so there is really no accommodation for them in the old place. 

 The plan of having two nesting places (entering from one hole) on a 

 lower level than the landing board, but divided inside by a piece of 

 wood, so as to keep the young ones from the sitting hen, is not a good 

 one. The young ones will find theii" waj"" over the division much sooner 

 than they would do from one separate apartment to another ; and the 

 difficulty in cleaning out the old nests, when lower in level than the 

 landing board, ia boxes fixed at some height from the ground, is very 



Pin. 1.— Pigeon House for Four Paiks. 



great. No scraper could do it thoroughly ; even the hands of the owner 

 could not reach all the corners, and but few could adopt such a disgusting 

 method, as the nests of young pigeons just flown are very foul. A hinged 

 bottom piece would certainly facilitate matters, but the wind would find 

 its way past such an arrangement. 



The inside should therefore be on the same level vrith the landing board, 

 as in Fig. 1, and it will not matter much, though the landing board itself 

 is not divided in its length between the two nests given to each pair, for 

 although the young ones will leave the nest when about three and a half 



