PIGEONS 



Every pigeon, male and female, must have a separate apart- 

 ment. Without this precaution your pigeon tower mil be a 

 very tower of Babel, rife with anarchy and confusion. Eggs 

 will be smashed and infant " squeakers " (as baby pigeons are 

 called) trodden under foot. So that if your pigeon-house is| 

 designed for twelve lodgers, it must be divided into twelve com- 

 partments. It is as well to fix a small tin hood above the 

 doorway of each chamber as a secm-ity against inclement wea- 

 ther. The barrel should stand on a platform eighteen inches 

 wide, and the whole should be painted white. This is especi- 

 ally important, because you thus provide your young and 

 inexperienced birds with a conspicuous mark to direct their 

 homeward flight. Even your old birds may be glad of such a 

 beacon should they happen to be out in one of those sudden 

 glooms which sometimes precede violent sto:^ms. The white of 

 zinc paint is the most durable and brilliant. Once a month at 

 least the separate chambers shoxdd be lime-washed. 



If it is your intention to keep a large number of pigeons 

 (and it is a well-known fact, that he who has a laxge njjmber 

 is much more likely to keep them than he who possesses but a 

 few) the space afforded by a barrel will be of little use. Ton 

 win requhe a loft, or a house specially built for the purpose. 

 The attie of a lofty house makes a capital pigeon-lbft, especi- 

 ally if the window be in the roof, or if in the side wall opening 

 towards the south. Even in this case you must not forget the 

 necessity of a beacon, — the nearest gable or chimney-stack 

 should be frequently whitewashed. Bear in mind, likewise, 

 that much light is not vitally important to pigeons, it being 

 their nature to prefer gloomy and solitary places. 



Outside the window, and hinged to the window ledge, you 

 should have a moveable flap capable of covering the aperture 

 (made by opening the window, or taking it out altogether) 

 when it is pulled up, and of forming a platform parallel with 

 the window ledge when it is let down. This flap should be 

 painted white. The trap-string attached to the outer edge of 

 the trap, should pass through the top of the window frame 

 into the room. Inside the chamber, and covering half the 

 wiudow, — that is, covering the space created by raising the 

 lower half of the sash, — a square box should be fixed. At 

 the back of the box are two or three holes to admit the pigeons 

 into the chamber, and each hole is so covered on the outer side 

 by a hinged lath as to easily yield to the bird's endeavours to 

 join his mates in the chamber, but to entirely prevent him 



