56 THE PIGEON BOOK 



In the breeding season birds will generally go into the 

 fields and eat the worm-castings. These cause the bowels 

 of the youngsters in the nest to be free in the morning, 

 but as soon as they get the hard corn in the crop and it 

 passes through the system the droppings during the night 

 are firm and solid. No uneasiness need be felt in these 

 cases. 



If persistent, look to the corn. If too new, change to 

 something a little older. Whatever you do, avoid maize; 

 this, if of poor quality, will induce diarrhoea more 

 quickly than anything. 



Try a little old baked English wheat or good sound 

 peas two years old. 



A gentle aperient in the shape of a dose of castor oil 

 will sometimes effect a cure if taken in hand at once. 

 Diarrhoea is the forerunner of many evils. 



When the droppings are loose and greenish two drops 

 of chlorodyne will sometimes at once effect a remedy, 

 but when the disease affects the majority of the inmates 

 of a loft the cause will generally be found in the food 

 and feeding. 



In some cases I have found a teaspoonful of camphor- 

 ated chalk added to a quart of water effect an immediate 

 remedy. 



The disease is more conmion in hot weather, and bad 

 ventilation and overcrowding will cause it. 



Eating Droppings. 



If pigeons are kept very short of corn they will acquire 

 the filthy habit of eating their droppings, particularly if 

 any husk is passed, or if bad linseed is used, which 

 through its hardness may be passed through the digestive 

 tract in the same manner as small grit or stones that the 

 gizzard expels that it has no use for. 



