248 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 



they will come out in time if you give them time enough. Some pairs are 

 eccentric in their breeding. A certain pair of blue-barred birds may breed 

 blue bars, whereas another pair of blue bars may breed one blue-barred squab 

 and one blue-checkered squab, or any other color, and this variation may 

 be characteristic of this breeding for quite a period. It is impossible to pre- 

 dict absolutely. 



Our white Homers breed true to color. If you buy white Homers of us 

 and breed them, the squabs will be white-feathered constantly and will not 

 be blue barred or blue checkered, or any other color, except very rarely. 



SULPHUR OR IRON WATER. 



Parties write us from different sections of the country stating that the 

 water where they live contains sulphur and others write that the water 

 contains iron. For example, on the East coast of Florida about half-way 

 down, all the water is strongly impregnated with sulphur. Breeders write 

 us to know if this sulphur water is all right for pigeons. To this we reply 

 yes, when they get accustomed to it. If when you get your pigeons you 

 find that this sulphur or iron water is affecting them, stop it and give the 

 birds rain water. Rain water is absolutely pure water containing no mineral 

 substances whatever, except the trifling amount of dust which may get in 

 as the rain water runs down a roof before it gets into a rain-bq^el or cistern. 

 It is always safe to give this rain water to pigeons and you can introduce 

 them to your sulphur or iron water as slowly as you please, by adding the 

 sulphur or iron water to the rain water from day to day until the mixture 

 is finally all sulphur or iron water. This will accustom the birds to the new 

 water and before long you will have no need of using the rain water. 



PIGEONS THAT FLY AWAY. 



In every day's mail, two or three letters and often more recount the story 

 that the writers have accidentally left open the doors of their squab houses 

 or the doors of their flying pens ; or that some other accident has happened 

 so that some of the pigeons have flown away from the premises. Customers 

 writing from as far as California tell us this and sometimes telegraph us and 

 wish us to catch these birds as soon as they reappear at Melrose and send 

 them back by express. The capacity for flight of a Homer does not seem 

 to be a matter of well-defined knowledge, so we will say here that flights of 

 over 500 miles for a homing pigeon are very rare. We have no cases on 

 record of flights of homing pigeons even from Ohio or Illinois to New York 

 or Massachusetts. It is incredible that a homing pigeon would get back 

 to its native place after a flight of two or three thousand miles. Birds 

 which have been imported would make no attempt to fly back across the 

 ocean or to the shipping point, so if you lose any of your pigeons out of 

 your coop, the best you can do. is to hope that they will return, as quite 

 often they do. Recently we recall a case where a customer lost nine birds 

 .which flew away but five of them returned and went inside the house. 



Once again we repeat, hoping it will catch the eyes of so many who write 

 us, that any Homers which yeu buy you must keep wired in all the time, 

 otherwise they will fly away and leave you. By all the time we mean day 

 after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, continually 

 and perpetually, as long as the pigeons live. You cannot feed them for a 

 month or so and then let them out and think that they will stay with you. 



