60 Pigeons and All Abol't Them. 



how to hand feed. 



Hand-feeding has also to be resorted to when the 

 old birds feed one squab better than the other. Some- 

 times one of a pair of squabs is much more vigorous 

 than the other, and it obtains all, or nearly all, the 

 sustenance which the old birds have to give in the 

 way of Pigeon milk. At other times the parents 

 seem not to care for one of their babies as the}- do 

 the other, and s.vstematically neglect it. There are 

 occasions when the old birds have not the power of 

 secretion sufificiently developed, and they fail to pro- 

 vide enough food for two healthy, vigorous squabs. 

 \^^hen such is the case, sometimes one squab suffers, 

 sometimes both. If both are equally strong, or 

 equally weak, the3^ both suffer together, but if one is 

 stronger than the other — well, the weaker one goes 

 to the wall, unless the o\A-ner steps in and gives as- 

 sistance in the way of hand-feeding. 



Iir any of such circumstances, the owner must 

 supplement what the parents are doing, and the best 

 wa}' so to do is to moisten a small quantity of Spratt's 

 Pigeon Food with boiling milk ; mix it to the con- 

 sistency of thick cream, then take a small glass 

 syringe, plunge it into the mixture, pull out the 

 plunger until the glass tube is full about one-third of 

 the wa3' up. Then take the squab, insert the muzzle 

 of the syringe inside its beak, and slowly work the 

 plunger down so that the creamy mass is ejected down 

 the squab's throat. Should the syringe work at all 

 stiiJly, empt}' it, cleanse it with warm watef, and re- 

 charge. Let every movement be one of gentleness. 

 Do notliing harshly or roughly, or you may injure the 

 beak or throat of a probable winner. A big, strong, 

 healthy, growing squab that is neglected by its 

 parents will take a great deal of feeding in this man- 

 ner, and its crop will not be filled all at once, neither 

 should you try so to do. The creamy mixture of 

 Sprabt's Pigeon Food and milk quickly thickens in 

 the tube, therefore after each portion of food has been 

 ejected from it the syringe should be cleansed. This 

 is easily done by the aid of a basin of warm \\-ater, 

 which should be at hand at such a time. As the tube 



