2'6ti Pigeons and All About Them. 



A good fancier, that is, one who takes an inteUi- 

 gent interest in the welfare of his stock, can tell at a 

 glance if a bird is well or ill. Such a fancier notices 

 at once any disinclination to feed, or any refusal to 

 bathe — the two surest indications of something being 

 wrong. Then the character of the excreta affords a 

 most reliable tell-tale as to the state of a Pigeon's 

 health. Therefore the young fancier who notices any 

 listlessness, any drowiness, any humping or puffing 

 up of the plumage, any refusal of, or inordinate greed 

 for, food, should look around him for the cause, and 

 not stop till he finds it. He should also at once 

 administer some mild remedy, and here let me remark 

 that it is far better for the inexperienced fancier to 

 make use of the remedies which are advertised in 

 " Pigeons " week by week, by such gpecialists as, 

 Dixons, Woods, and others. Therefore, I say that 

 the remedies put up by such authorities must, of neces- 

 sity, be safer and more reliable for the 3^oung fancier 

 than any attempts he may make at home doctoring. 



COLD. 



This is the most common complaint and may be 

 caused by a bird having been exposed to extremes of 

 temperature at a show, by the show basket getting wet, 

 or being exposed to draughts or damp, either at home 

 or abroad. The symptoms of ordinary cold are a 

 humped-up appearance of the feathers, a dull look 

 about the eye, with a thin, watery discharge from the 

 eyes or nostrils, sometimes one or the other, sometimes 

 both. If any of these symptoms are noticed in a bird 

 he should be taken in hand at once, removed to a warm 

 corner of the pen-room, given a pinch of Epsom Salts, 

 morning and night, about as much as will lie on a 

 sixpenny bit, and a change of diet, and in a few days 

 all traces of the ailment will have passed. 



ROUP. 



This most dreaded disease is the result of a cold 

 which has not been attended to in the incipient stages. 

 A bird suffering from roup should be isolated at once 

 for its own welfare, as well as that of its fellows, as 



