My Foreign Doves and Pigeons. 
CHAPTER I. 
Tus little book must 
not be considered in any 
other light than that of a 
simple hand-book, treating 
only of those doves and 
pigeons I have actually 
kept. Most of these birds 
are within the reach of 
any amateur, and can be 
procured in England (if 
you watch your oppor- 
turity), at a seasonable 
time and a reasonable price. In many instances 
the birds described have bred in English Aviaries, 
and nearly all are hardy. 
I have not attempted to give any scientific 
description, but just to recount the ordinary daily 
life of my own birds, and, where I could gather it, 
the experience of others, and also some short notes 
on the wild life of the birds. 
Doves as a family have much to recommend 
them. They are hardy, long-lived, and show their 
contentment in captivity by frequently nesting and 
rearing their young. If their colouring is quiet, 
it is also singularly harmonious, and the blending 
of the different shades is as refined as it is beauti- 
ful. Where could you find anything more lovely 
than a cock Violet dove in perfect health and 
plumage? He is an object to feast one’s eyes on 
for long—and yet to look again. 
Then another interesting feature about doves 
is to study their different calls, for each bird has 
several—to be able to distinguish between the war- 
cry note and the soft coo of the cock, telling the 
hen his little love story. They can express their 
moods as surely as a human being, and to interpret 
this is a study in itself. 
It is nearly 13 years ago since I started keeping 
doves, beginning, as I suppose was only natural, 
with our old friends a pair of Barbary doves. At 
this time dove keeping was a singularly lonely 
hobby—many people kept foreign birds, but not 
doves. Most of my experience was learned in the 
sad school of adversity, for little was written (that 
Younc Vio.ter Dove. 
was accessible to me) on the subject. I had Dr. 
Greene’s ‘‘Notes on Cage Birds’’ and Dixon’s old 
“Dove Cote and Aviary,’’? but that was about all. 
A year or two before, however, I had read in The 
Feathered World an article by the late Mr. O. E. 
Cresswell on his foreign doves. How I longed to 
possess all the kinds he described, never for one 
moment thinking I should keep in the future nearly 
every one of these, and many more besides. 
And here let me pause just a minute to note a 
very pleasant side of bird keeping—I mean the 
many friends your birds will make for you—and 
in one and all there is the same trait, a kindly and 
generous fellow feeling in a mutual hobby. A 
chance question, and reply, on a little Turtle dove 
was the beginning of a long and valued friend- 
ship with Mr. and Miss Cresswell, and when he 
died I felt as if I had lost my earliest dove-loving 
friend, for of all his beautiful birds his doves, I 
think, were his favourites. 
First, before I describe the birds, I must begin 
and tell you a little of how, and where, I keep my 
doves, so I will start with a short description of my 
aviaries. They are all different types. 
No. 1 is my original doves’ aviary. It is about 
1g ft. long by 12 ft. wide. The north and east 
sides are built against high walls; on the west 
the half-inch wire netting comes right down to 
the ground, but on the south it is boarded up for 
two feet. On this last side is a porch with double 
doors, the outer one of wood, the inner one of 
wire. A great drawback to this aviary is the lack 
of sunshine, owing to the fact that so many trees 
are growing round it, but at the time I used it for 
doves (it is now the home of a Crowned Crane) 
this did not seem to affect their health in any way. 
A shelter, with a door into the flight, runs across 
the eastern end. It has wire in front to within 
two feet of the ground and a small wire-covered 
window faces the south. The shelter is white- 
washed inside. 
When first this aviary was put up, the floor of 
the flight was earth, the top of it wire-netting. 
Rats began to make their appearance, so the flight 
