HOMING BIRDS. 8J> 



in good condition. For example, it is known that at the approach of the time of 

 laving, and also during the two or three days which follow it, it is dangerous to 

 employ a female. If she lays her two eggs in the basket in which she is carried, 

 the state of weakness in which she arrives will cause her to fail, or, at least, will 

 not allow of her taking a brilliant part in the contest. In the same way the 

 female, being more employed in hatching than the male, perceives sooner the 

 movements of the young pigeon in the egg ; she feels that the time of coming out 

 of the egg draws near, and prepares in consequence ; the glands of the crop 

 swell and secrete the milk which she gives to her little ones in the first days after 

 their birth. If at this moment she is taken away from her maternal cares, to be 

 shut up for several days in a basket, she will become ill, will cease to eat, and in 

 all probability will be unable to regain her home. This last circumstance is also 

 unfavourable in the case of the male bird, because he disgorges the same kind of 

 milk for his little ones. 



" It is also necessary to watch that the pigeons should not exhaust themselves in 

 rearing too many young ; as a rule, only one young pigeon should be allowed to 

 those parents that are about to take long flights. 



" Thus, during the two or three days which precede or follow laying, and also the 

 hatching out of the young, the female must not be employed ; nor must the male 

 during the three or four days which follow the hatching. It is often in the power 

 of the amateur to defer the occurrence of these unfavourable circumstances. As 

 the day of departure is known a long time beforehand, he may, by taking away 

 the young, accelerate the period of a new laying, and also, a day or two before the 

 hatching out, he may place a young pigeon of three or four days old in the nest, 

 so that the parents may disgorge the soft food which fills their crops. 



" Besides the times indicated above, the question has been much agitated whether 

 pigeons ought to be flown while they are sitting, or when they have young ones 

 less than eight days old. 



" At last the great day arrives ; the pigeons intended for the struggle must be 

 caught in order to be sent to the society, where they are to receive the marks 

 indicating then- engagement. This operation of taking the pigeons in a closed 

 pigeon-house appears very simple, and ordinary people would not imagine that it 

 could be made an object of discussion. There is a plan employed which 

 consists in catching the pigeons in then 1 flight by means of a small net ; the 

 Belgian pigeon-houses are too small to allow of the use of this instrument, and 

 even if they were larger it might not be generally adopted. 



"As a general rule more can be got from animals by affection than by cruelty, 

 and pigeons are no exception to this. "When an amateur takes care of his birds 

 himself, when he never frightens them by abrupt and hurried movements, the 

 pigeons know him, and will allow themselves to be taken with the greatest facility. 

 We have even seen the master's dog go into the pigeon-house without a single 

 pigeon manifesting the least uneasiness. 



"But all amateurs have not the talent or the leisure to tame their flying birds to 



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