THE PIGEON LOFT. 3 



admirable condition. But nine-tenths of fancy pigeons are 

 kept in towns, or too near questionable characters to be thus 

 risked ; and for all such must be provided an exercising place or 

 aviary, or " flight," as it is usually called, entirely enclosed with 

 wire netting. This should be in front of the enclosed loft, of 

 good height, and as long as can be afforded. For the loft we 

 are describing, six feet of flight in front may be made " to do," 

 but is very cramped; twelve feet is far better, and will keep 

 the birds in perfect health : such a loft thus occupying in all a 

 ground space of twelve by eighteen feet, arranged as in Fig. 1. 



In this figure, A A are the lofts, b b the flights, or aviaries, 

 belonging to them. Unless the loft is reared against a wall, 

 we should prefer the highest part of the roof to be in front, 

 which allows a small window over each door, and a good height 

 — say eight feet — for the wire enclosure. At the far end of 

 this, at the height of five to six feet from the ground, a shelf 

 (/), about five inches wide, should be fixed, but taking care to 

 place it a few inches clear of the netting, in order that in turn- 

 ing round the pigeons may not damage their tails ; on the doors 

 and front of the loft, also a few inches clear, should be fixed 

 other shorter shelves (e), arranged in a manner that allows one 

 to pass over the other when the doors are opened. The pigeons 

 will, in a flight arranged like this, take much exercise and 

 pleasure in flying from one shelf to the other ; and if the aviary 

 be much over twelve feet in length, it is a good plan to provide 

 another shelf across the middle, about eighteen inches below the 

 wire at the top. The floor of the aviary, on the whole, is best 

 laid with concrete, or hot lime and sand, as what the pigeons 

 eat of this will do them good, and their dilapidations can easily 

 be plastered over every two or three years. 



The entrance holes should be cut in the door, that ther© 

 may be only one locality for draught ; and there should always 

 be two in each door, some birds being very dictatorial over these 

 places. A good size is four and a half inches wide, by about 



