AN EASY START 31 
they will. An extra number of nest boxes may be useful 
to you to accommodate the young birds raised to breeding 
age from the old birds which you buy of us, if you intend to 
raise your squabs to breeding age. 
_An expenditure of not over five dollars, and a couple of 
days’ time, will transform the average old building into a 
habitation for squabs. Put on the finishing touches and add 
to the expense to suit your fancy. You may cover the out- 
side of the building with building paper, and shingle or clap- 
board it. You may putaskylight in the roof for ventilation, 
Improve it all you wish. Use your own judgment. 
To get at your pigeons in such a house, you walk in through 
the door and find yourself directly among them, the nest 
boxes all pointing at you. Go to the nest which you wish to 
investigate or from which you wish to take out the squabs 
and put your hand in the opening. The old birds will fly 
by your head, perhaps, and may strike you with their wings, 
but they will not fly into your face and eyes,—they are good 
dodgers. Don’t be afraid that if you enter the house when 
the housekeeping is going on you will frighten the birds so 
they never will come back to the eggs or the squabs. They 
will seem timid at first, but they will get accustomed to you. 
In the course of a few weeks, only a few will make a great 
hustle to get away from you. Many of them will continue 
to sit contentedly on the eggs and if you put up your hand 
to them they will not fly off in fear but will slap you with 
their wings, telling you in their language not to bother them. 
Carry some hempseed in with you and you will teach the 
birds to come and eat it out of your hand. You can tame 
them and teach them to love you as any animal is taught. 
The pigeon, particularly the Homer, the king of them all, is 
a knowing bird. 
Tack up a few perches where you have room on that wall 
or those walls of the squab house which have no nest boxes. 
You do not need a perch for every pigeon, because while some 
are on perches, others are in the nests, or out in the flying pen, 
or on the roof, or on the floor of the squab: house. If you 
have forty-eight pigeons, twenty perches will be enough, and 
you can get along with a dozen. Make each perch of two 
pieces of board, one six inches square, the other six inches 
by five, and toe-nail the perch to the wall-of the squab house 
