26 MY FOREIGN DOVES AND PIGEONS. 
are fortunate enough to have once made a good 
combination, make a note of it and keep to it, not 
only for the present season, but future ones. Don’t 
run risks by introducing any birds unknown to the 
others, and especially during the nesting season. 
Trouble will be sure to follow. If your first 
arrangement is satisfactory, keep to it. I have 
in my first division a pair of Rufous Pigeons and 
Brush Bronze-wings. They are used to each other 
and nest without any interference on either side, 
but I am certain if I put in any other bird there 
would be trouble at once. Where you are anxious 
to have a good breeding season you must humour 
your birds; you cannot be too careful, for doves are 
very peculiar. They will even show you where 
they want to nest before carrying up a twig. It 
may be only a foot or so from where you have tied 
up your tempting nest-pan, but it is of no use, you 
may just as well take it down and refix it. When- 
ever 1 see one of my nesting birds squatting in a 
branch I know what it means. The bird is not 
perching in an ordinary way, but sitting motion- 
less on the bough, in the same position as if sitting 
on eggs. Of course, I always take the little hint 
and alter the position of the nest-pan, putting it 
where the bird was squatting, and I find invariably 
the nest will be built there almost at once. 
For nesting material I use dead heather. I find 
it clean and strong, and very suitable for the pur- 
pose. Often it can be used once or twice over, if 
put to soak in a bucket of water and well washed. 
J buy it from Mr. F. Hiscock, Blashford, Hants. 
He has supplied me with heather for years every 
spring, before the birds start nesting, for of course 
you must get it beforehand. I break it up into 
pieces about four or five inches long, and put a 
lining in the nest-pans to start the birds, and I also 
throw some on the floor. It is as well not to be 
too lavish with the heather, as sometimes I have 
known doves carry up such a pile as to have quite 
a pyramid in the nest, the top, of course, much 
smaller than the base, and this is fraught with 
danger to the young birds. 
Only the other day a pair of Dwarf Turtles 
built a nest like this, and laid the eggs, which 
duly hatched. I feared to disturb them by inter- 
fering, but I felt sure something would go wrong. 
Every morning I used to get the steps and climb 
up to see if the nestlings were all right, for the 
nest was all to itself in the shelter, and no other 
birds came in, while the parents only seemed, after 
the first few days, to cover the young at night, so 
there was no fear of disturbing them. When the 
nestlings were some days old I one morning 
noticed one on the edge of the nest, and climbing 
up to see, I found the poor little thing had strayed 
an inch or two from the other, and (as it was very 
cold) the hen had probably brooded only the one in 
the centre of the nest, leaving the adventurous 
young bird all night uncovered. 
Now if the nest had been buiit not nearly so 
high, but just to the level of the pan, and concave 
in shape, this would probably never have happened. 
The young birds were both blind, as all young 
doves are for the first few days of their existence, 
and so had no sense to get back to the centre of the 
nest. At first I feared the young one would die, 
for it was very cold, but after being held for some 
time in my warm hands it began to recover. 
Remember, live warmth is the best remedy possible 
for a bird suffering from collapse from cold; it 
brings back the vitality better than anything. 
It is a most curious sensation to feel the life 
gradually coming back in a nearly dead bird, the 
heart beginning to beat very fitfully at first and 
then gradually calmer and more regular. Some- 
times, in extreme cases and in very cold weather 
vou will need other remedies too, but I will tell 
vou more of these when I treat later on of sick 
birds. Having revived the bird, I then turned my 
attention to the nest, and pulled away quite two- 
thirds of the heather, being careful to do it from 
the underneath part, not from the top, lest the old 
birds should desert the nest, for it is a risk to 
interfere with a nest, however carefully you may 
do it. 
Having made the heather lining as concave as 
I could, I put back the young birds, who, of 
course, had been taken out during the re-arrange- 
ment, and they settled down at once. The parents 
have not deserted them, and they have stayed 
where they should stay—in the middle of the nest- 
pan. 
I have also known doves make a nest and lay 
eges, then perhaps more heather has been put in 
the aviary for other nesting doves, and the birds 
have not been able to resist gathering it, and have 
piled it on the top of the eggs. JI remember once 
in my early days finding about three sets of eggs 
piled under a huge stack of heather. I had been 
quite unaware as to what was going on, for my 
chief object in not going to inspect was the fear 
of frightening the birds from the nest. 
It is usually the hen who makes the nest. She 
sits in the nest-pan and arranges all the pieces of 
heather the cock brings to her, tucking the pieces 
in with her beak. It is very amusing to see the 
cock choosing his material; he will pick up several 
pieces and throw each one down again before he is 
satisfied. 
At this stage be sure and put down plenty of 
ground dried eggshell for the hen. If you have 
no cutter, do it with a rolling pin, it will crush it 
just as well. If you do this regularly your hens 
