HOW TO STOCK THE PIGEON-HOUSB. 



take the yoxmg ones. Nest places may be arranged all round, 

 against the npright walla, by nailing up boards eight or nine 

 inches wide, like shelves, fifteen inches above each other, and 

 dividing these by partitions at every three feet, and nailing a 

 board up in front at each end of these divisions, so as to form 

 a recess at each end for the nests. A small slip of wood, 

 running from back to front, completes the nests, which are 

 thus divided into pairs ; or, failing the upright walls, boards 

 may be nailed along the rafters, like shelves, one over the other. 

 Small pieces of board should be nailed in behind, between the 

 rafters, and a long slip in front of the board ; tiius converting 

 the shelf into a sort of trough, which can be divided into nests 

 by simply nailing an upright piece of board against each 

 rafter." 



A bag-net, on a short pole, something Hke a landing-net, is 

 also very useful for catchin? the pigeons, if their loft is largo. 



HOW TO STOCK THE PIGEON-HOTTSB, 



In the first place, avoid purchasing old birds. They may be 

 more immediately valuable on the score of breeding, but as a 

 set off to this advantage it is almost ten to one that their first 

 flight from your dormer will be their last. True, by plucking 

 out their larger quill feathers they may be induced to " haunt," 

 or a<xx>mmodate themselves to their new abode, on much the 

 same principle as that you may induce the most wrong-headed 

 dog to stay with you if you chop one of his legs off! Such 

 barbarity, however, is not to my taste, and, I am quite sure, 

 not to the tastes of my readers. Besides, I much doubt if 

 this wing-maiming process is at all conducive to security. 

 Beyond a doubt, the pigeon is possessed of at least average 

 sagacity, and it is only natural to conclude that its horror of 

 the perpetrator of the outrage will survive even after its iU 

 effects have ceased, and that the first work of the pigeon's 

 healed wings wiU be to carry him far away from the torture- 

 house. 



Apart from the humane view of the subject, wing clipping 

 is otherwise objectionable. Ton reduce him at once from a 

 handsome bird to a scare-crow. Nor is this all. You will 

 discover when the moulting period arrives, that the ugly stumps 

 will cling with unnatural tenacity to the skin, and if not im- 

 mediately observed and rectified, inflamnfiation, mortification, 

 and death will rapidly follow each other. 



