PROPER CARE OF SQUaRS AND YOUNGSTERS 157 



any size; for it is frequently necessary to switch eggs from 

 one nest to another, and eggs so switched should be of about 

 the same length of incubation as the eggs with which they are 

 put." This is necessary in order to have them hatch about the 

 seventeenth day after the old bird went to setting. If they 

 hatch much sooner than that, the old bird will not be able to 

 feed them, on account of not having any accumulated pigeon 

 milk in its crop, and if they do not hatch within eighteen or 

 nineteen days, the old bird will likely leave the nest before the 

 eggs are hatched. 



Some breeders follow the plan of robbing a nest and putting 

 the eggs in a couple of other nests, making three in each nest, 

 and in this way allow the birds whose nest was robbed, to 

 lay two more eggs and again start to setting. This is not a bad 

 practice, provided the parent birds of the three squabs are able 

 to ke^p them well fed and fat, which depends something upon 

 the feeding qualities of the old birds, and the kind and supply 

 of feed they are getting. 



I think it is a good plan to rob all nests that have but one egg 

 on account of the other egg having been broken or laid'on the 

 floor. I also think it a good plan to rob each nest that has but 

 one squab in it, and double that squab up with some other nest 

 with a single squab, or with two other squabs that are being 

 well fed and are of about the same age. Squabs should not 

 be taken out of a nest, however, until four or five days old, 

 for the reason that it is necessary to the health of the parent 

 bird that they feed out the supply of pigeon milk that has ac- 

 cumulated in their crops while setting. 



Parent birds are not able to distinguish their young ones from 

 any other ones until they are feathered out; therefore, they will 

 feed any other squab about the same size as their own if put 

 into their nests. They go more by what is in their nests, than 

 what the squab looks like. If there is too great a difference in 

 size, however, they are apt to kill strange young ones put into 

 their nests by picking them on the head or back. 



Some parent birds will become foster mothers quicker than 

 others, and some will care for and feed any number of squabs 

 put into their nests, almost regardless of size or color. You 

 can easily determine this by watching the parent bird go back 



