FIGEONS. 



It is advisable, therefore, to purchase " squeakers,'' that ia, 

 pigeons that are from a month to fiye or six weeks old, 'be- 

 fore which latter time they will have attained but little strength 

 of wing. They begin to peck for themselves when they are 

 five or six weeks old, and the sooner after that they come into 

 your keeping the greater will be your chance of keeping them. 

 Until, however, you are sure the pairs have really mated — un- 

 til, indeed, they have laid their first eggs, it would be unsafe 

 to trust them abroad. They would almost surely be inveigled 

 away by the knowing old pigeons of the neighbourhood. 



To distinguish the sexes during squeakerhood is rather a 

 difficult master to a new hand. In half a dozen birds, of the 

 same age, the cocks may be known by their superior size, and 

 the female squeaker has a more prolonged squeak than her 

 male companion. 



The sorts to be selected entirely depends on the taste of the 

 keeper. If amusement be his only aim, then he should pur- 

 chase tumblers. If he be determined to have none but highly 

 respectable and graceful birds about his premises, he should 

 buy archangels, or nuns, or owls. If profit be the sole consi- 

 deration, then, I unhesitatingly, recommend runts. They are 

 neither handsome nor good flyers, but they are wonderfully 

 prohfic, and substantial fellows for the spit or pie. They, how- 

 ever, are careless of their eggs, so that it is as well to turn 

 their embryo progeny over to a careful nurse — the dragoon for 

 instance. 



But there can be no doubt that to start with the cheapest 

 and commonest sorts is the best plan. K they abscond, the 

 loss win be but trifling, and if they stay with you a month or so, 

 not only will you have a better chance of retaining any of the 

 more valuable sorts you may afterwards introduce, but the old 

 lodgers wfll be useftd as egg hatchers to their aristocratic neigh- 

 bours should such service be required. The best time to begin 

 to found a colony is about July, as pigeons are then cheapest. 



PAmiNG AND BBEEDDTG. 



When your squeakers have reached six months, you may 

 "put them up for breeding;" that ia, you must enclose the 

 pair — ^the cock and hen — in a cage, out of sight of any other 

 pigeon. At the expiration of two days you may give them 

 their hberty again. 



For a few days after this, the newly-married couple will 

 give their minds solely to enjoyment, ke<fping always togetheri 



