124 PIGEONS. 



gravel and mortar ; and their area should be kept thoroughly clean, where they 

 will pick themselves and bask in the sun, and thrive prodigiously. 



" Their food should be the best tares ; or if sound beans could be procured 

 that are small enough, I should prefer them ; but it will be better to let them 

 have both, as I do not think tares alone a wholesome diet, being apt to make 

 them scour. 



" I am a great advocate for parting the birds after the breeding season, having 

 found my account in it, and thence been thoroughly convinced of its beneficial 

 effects, great utility, and convenience ; and I shall endeavour to convince the young 

 fancier also of the propriety and advantage of this plan, by a few observations to 

 that point. 



"In the first place, a great deal of plague and trouble is saved to the fancier, 

 by the impossibility of the birds continuing to go to nest, which they will do, if 

 not parted, in spite of all his efforts to prevent them; he is then under the 

 necessity of continuing them another round, as the fanciers term it (though he is 

 convinced of the impropriety of it, at that late season of the year), to the great 

 detriment of his hens, and without a chance of bringing up what they may happen 

 to hatch. 



" And further, as few fanciers match their birds in the manner they were 

 matched the preceding season, from the number of young ones they may have 

 bred, which by the following season are become matchable, and occasion the 

 necessity of altering the old matches, and from other causes, the advantage of 

 parting the birds in the winter is here, I think, particularly conspicuous ; it will 

 enable him to cross-match all his birds without the least difficulty, as they will 

 cross-match ten times more readily when they have been asunder two or three 

 months, than when they have been kept together. 



" When I have had occasion to cross-match two or three pair of birds in the 

 height of the breeding season, on account of their produce not pleasing me, I 

 have frequently had great difficulty in obtaining my point, from the strong recollec- 

 tion the birds have had of each other ; and though I have at last succeeded, the 

 moment the hens have been turned into the loft they have flown to their former 

 pens and mates, and it was a considerable time before they were reconciled to 

 their new mates and abodes. To prevent this, the new-matched pair should be 

 fastened into their own pen, taking care that the cock has the same pen he had 

 before. This evil will be completely remedied by parting the loft, as the fanciers 

 may then put a pair or two of the cross-matched birds into the contrary side to 

 which they have been accustomed, and by this means avoid the intercourse that 

 must necessarily take place between the new-matched birds and their former 

 mates. 



"Another thing is necessary to be attended to by the fancier, in cross-matching, 

 viz. — he should have two or three matching pens in some other part of his 

 house, if not too inconvenient, in order that the birds he is about to cross-match 

 may be out of the hearing of their former mates, and of the other birds in the loft, 



