QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 109 
tie with thread, or fasten with glue or a stamp; or, you may 
tie the tissue around one of the tail feathers. A thin alu- 
‘minum tube containing the message may be fastened to a 
leg, or toa tail feather. A trap window should be constructed 
to time the arrival home of birds. This is an aperture about 
six inches square closed by wires hanging from a piece of wood 
at the top of the aperture and swinging inward, but held close 
to the aperture by its own weight. The pigeon cannot fly 
out but on its return home (if you have sprinkled grain on the 
inside of the house, next the wires) the bird will push the wire 
door and goin. It takes only a day or two for the pigeon to 
become accustomed to the trap. If you connect the trap 
with a simple make-and-break electric circuit, the pigeon on 
its arrival home from its flight will ring a bell in any part of 
your house or barn. When you have a record of the flyers, 
you will have a guide for mating. The majority of fanciers 
recommend a medium-sized Homer. A large hen should be 
mated to a small cock, or a large cock to a small hen. What 
is perhaps the best pigeon service in the world has been in use 
for several years between Newton Roads, Auckland, New 
Zealand, and the Great Barrier and Maro Tiro Islands, some 
seventy-five miles distant. A boy of sixteen years worked 
up the service and makes a large income from it. About 
twenty messages an hour are carried back and forth by the. 
Homers. A year ago the government declared its intention 
of laying a cable from Auckland to Great Barrier. The 
roject was abandoned, however, as the residents of the little 
island decided that they were well pleased with the pigeons, 
and that a cable would not be patronized. The government 
offered to buy the whole pigeon outfit from the boy owner, 
but he refused. There are from four hundred to five hundred 
pairs of pigeons in the service. 
Question. In the case of young birds mated up for the 
first time at five or six months of age, is it best to destroy the 
first eggs, or let them go ahead and hatch in the regular way? 
Answer. Let them go ahead and hatch-and learn to feed their 
young. It will improve them for the next hatch. 
Question. Please describe the self-feeder more fully and 
explain its operation. Answer. The hopper of the feeder 
is V-shaped so that the grain will fall by its own weight to the 
centre at the bottom, which is‘ cut away as shown in the 
