44 Fancy Pigeons. 



there is but little inducement for tlie birds to breed during the short 

 days of winter. It is at least unnatural for the sexes to lose the 

 companionship of each other during- several months of the year, and they 

 have always seemed to me to thrive much better when left together. 

 When all facilities for breeding are removed, as the birds begin to get 

 deep in moult, and not replaced till the beginning of spring, there will 

 be no trouble experienced on this account, from pouters at least, 

 though many of the small and hardy kinds of pigeons will not take 

 advantage of such a long rest. 



When feeders are employed, the eggs of the good birds may be given 

 to the feeders, if of the same age, or if one or two days older, but it is 

 not safe to risk any greater difference in the age of the eggs, because, if 

 hatched before their soft meat comes on them, the feeders will not feed 

 them as a rule. In changing young ones, let them be a few days 

 older than those they replace, and they will have so much additional 

 care. When young birds are well feathered it is often unsafe to change 

 them, as the feeders begin to know the difference in their appearance, 

 and will occasionally either not feed them or drive them out of their 

 nest. Some feeders are very valuable, from the care they bestow on any 

 young ones given them, and a barren hen is often best of all in this 

 respect. An Qg^ placed in her nest will be taken to, and, after the 

 interval of a day it may be removed, and a fresh pair of ^g^Q from 

 some choice pair of birds given to her, when she and her mate will treat 

 them as their own, and rear them successfully in many instances. 

 Barren hens have this advantage, that they can be made to wait tUl 

 their owner has a use for them. The worst of feeders is, that they look 

 so bad among good pigeons, and on this account they should always 

 be kept in some separate loft if possible. A place for drafting young 

 ones into is also a great convenience, for they soon become troublesome 

 among breeding birds. 



The elements of success in breeding good fancy pigeons may he 

 briefly summed up as follows : — Well bred stock birds, properly paired 

 in regard to their own and their ancestral form, suppUed with good 

 food and clean water, provided with proper breeding accommodation, 

 not overcrowded, kept clean, and tended with aU reasonable care by one 

 who has their welfare and the love of them thoroughly at heart. 



