CHAPTER IV. 
NEST BOWLS AND NESTS. 
Do Not Use the Old-Fashioned Nest Pans—Obvious Faults 
of the Earthenware Nappy— The Wood-Fibre Nest Bowl 
—How the Pigeons Choose Nest Boxes—What to Use jor 
Nesting Material— How the Birds Manage their Nests. 
For nest pans, do not use the heavy, deep, red clay, unglazed 
dishes which you may see offered for sale as pigeon nests. 
They are a relic of the past. 
In our early experience we used for a pigeon nest bowl 
the common kitchen yellow earthenware nappy. We em- 
ployed two sizes, the six-inch and the seven-inch, changing 
from the large one to the small one when the squabs were 
two weeks old. These earthenware nappies filled the bill in 
being cheap and shallow, and the pigeons deposited their 
manure in a circle outside and not inside the nest, but they 
have faults which are obvious. They are flat and not round- 
ing on the bottom. When the female pigeon turns the eggs 
(as she does daily, same as a hen, in order to give the heat of 
her body to the whole shell and to give fresh albumen to the 
germ) the eggs are liable to roll apart, making it necessary 
for the bird to gather them together again, and after two or 
three mishaps like this she is liable to desert them. The 
earthenware is cold, breakable and can be kept clean only 
with water. The washing of the nappies becomes a tedious 
task and is often neglected. In winter weather, the earthen- 
ware dishes become so cold that one’s fingers are numbed 
by handling them—and the squabs which sit in them are 
numbed, even frozen. 
Later we perfected a nest bowl made of wood which met 
every objection raised against earthenware. We sold thou- 
sands of them during the two years we had them on the market 
and they gave good satisfaction except when some were 
made of improperly seasoned lumber, in which case they 
would crack and split after a few months’ use. After study 
and experiment to remove this objection, we had expensive 
patterns and moulds made and began the manufacture of 
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