28 riGEOXS AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



■When he told me of the many nice families who used them 

 entirely in their hath rooms I felt that I had found the correct 

 tiling. 



Well, it worked Ijea.ulifuily for two nights. 1 had about 

 twenty hens in the lower hjft and as m^uy cocks above, and 

 it was lovely to go out just before bed time and see that nice 

 bright little stove working on full time and diffusing a good 

 warmth. Of course the extra heat rose and warmed the up- 

 per loft. 



But on the morning after the third night, I found the stove 

 out and Ijoth lofts full of the most nasty black smoke I ever 

 smelled. The plumage of every hen was ruined, and the 

 cocks were not much better and the lofts felt like ice bo.xes. 

 I never got those Ijirds clean till after moult next fall. 1 gave 

 the stove away and since tliat day have never tried artificial 

 heat and 1 never will. 1 can say truly that in forty-live years 

 I have never lost a bird by freezing. 



Pigeons are very wai ni blooded and wliile liieir plumage is 

 not like that of the duck or goose, it is still whatXature gave 

 them and Nature is agood mother. Who lias not seen common 

 pigeons roosting in cracked boxes (on North walls) covered 

 with snow and ice, and yet living for years hardy and con- 

 tented. 



We all know lliat our finely bred liirds are not as strong as 

 the common breed, yet theie is also a big difference between 

 a little old rickety Imx revered witli snow, with hardly a ray 

 of sunsliine in tlie \vinter, and a iiiru tight loft. Tlierc is 

 also a dilTereuce between tlic scanty furage of the street 

 picked up by the common binl. and the splendid and health- 

 ful fcpod given regularly to )iis liner brother. 



