Feeding, Breeding, and Managevient. 43 



choice breeds, and, although there is much misunderstanding as to the 

 powers of even really good birds in their ability to snceessfuUy rear their 

 own young, feeders may be advantageously made use of in many 

 instances ; but so long as good birds do perform their natural functionSj 

 as the great majority are well able to do, it is but natural to aUow them 

 to do so. Unless other eggs or young ones be given to pigeons who have 

 been deprived of their own, they wiU often lay again much sooner^ 

 than they would otherwise do, and when this is often repeated nothing 

 but disaster can result in the end. Such unnaturally forced eggs are 

 often thin-shelled, unfertile, or, if they contain birds, they very often 

 come to nothing. Rather than allow good hens to overlay them- 

 selves, if they cannot be supplied with substitutes in eggs or young 

 ones, they should be penned up for a time, which will give their 

 systems the needful rest. 



The usual pair of eggs laid by the hen pigeon generally result in a 

 cock and hen, but so many instances occur of two cocks or two hens 

 being produced in a nest that it is never safe to reckon on the sex of young 

 ones. Certain indications of the sex of his young pigeons will soon 

 present themselves to an experienced fancier; and, at the same time,- 

 where many young ones are bred, there will usually be one or two whose 

 sex will puzzle the most experienced fancier for a long time. 



Odd birds in a loft, be they cocks or hens, are always very trouble- 

 some. Such should always be removed to a place by themselves, or 

 common mates procured for them, when they may be used as feeders. 



Pigeons are so productive that they often increase faster than 

 accommodation can be provided ; but nothing militates more against 

 success in rearing young ones than overcrowded lofts, which are a 

 fertile cause of disease, and when such does set in, the best seem to die 

 first, at least they are more missed than the worst, which is about 

 the truth of it. When every result of an overcrowded loft is considered, 

 such as extra expense for food, extra trouble in attendance, and the intro- 

 duction of disease, it would be found to pay far better to use an un- 

 sparing hand in killing off faulty young ones, which seldom pay any- 

 thing like their cost. 



Many fanciers separate the cocks from the hens during the winter 

 season, and where there is every convenience for doing so it may be 

 a good plan. When all nesting places are laid bare of their furnishings, 



