290 Fancy Pigeons. 



may also be carried round before the cooks, which soon puts them on 

 their mettle ; and it is good to allow all penned-np birds out once a day, 

 so that they may stretch their wings. It is a bad practice to put one's 

 hands in the pens and allow the birds to peck at them, by which they 

 get a habit of always jumping off their blocks and coming to the front 

 of their pens on the approach of anyone. Pouters are naturally familiar 

 birds, few of them refusing to become very tame if any trouble is taken 

 ■with them ; but perseverance and judicious treatment must be exercised, 

 and kindness accorded to such as keep long shy and stubborn, for they 

 will not be driven into showing. The late Mr. Montgomery said, " Pigeons, 

 ]ike other animals, have got tempers ; and a sulky, bad-tempered bird 

 will never be a winner in a show-pen, and I question the propriety of 

 "breeding from such birds, as they transmit this peculiarity as well as 

 others." As to breeding from such, everyone will, of course, be guided 

 by circumstances. I fear good pouters will never be plentiful enough to 

 oiUow any hard and fast line to be drawn against breeding from one pos- 

 sessing a particular fault, if good otherwise. 



