S38 
FOOD, BREEDING, ETC. 
together, and can be easily taken out when the place has to be cleaned, 
or when the eggs, or young bird, have to be examined ; as handling 
sometimes does mischief. The basket or pan (the former is pre- 
ferable) should slope from the top like a wash-hand basin. 
FOOD. 
As a general rule, it is best for the Pigeons to take their food out 
of the house, on the ground with the poultry, and in some measure to 
forage abroad for their living. Yet sometimes in the summer, and 
often in the winter, they must be fed in the house. All that is neces- 
sary is to throw down a sufficient quantity of peas or barley on the 
tluor, which we suppose to be swept and fresh gravelled or sanded 
Avith some degree of regularity, say twice a week in hot weather, 
once in cold. One reason for feeding them within doors is to give 
them an affection for the spot ; another, that ' the squatters,' as they 
are called, may learn to peck with the old birds. Old mortar or lime 
rubbish, are good to strew on the floor with the gravel ; next to these, 
dry clayey or loamy soil, or brick earth, are most desirable. Two other 
luxuries should never be wanting, salt and water ; if a sufficiency of 
these are not provided, the birds will be likely to stray. The salt 
Bhould be of coarse grain, and put down in earthen pans. Many 
Pigeon breeders use what they call the salt cat,' which is a com- 
pound of salt with cummin and other strong smelling ingredients 
made up into a mass with urine. But all this nastiness is quite un- 
necessary ; the mineral in its natural state answers equally well. For 
water, an open vessel is best, to give the birds an opportunity of 
bathing, in which they delight ; but then it soon becomes foul, there- 
fore it is best to have a reservoir with a narrow opening also, and see 
that both be kept supplied with the element fresh and pure. There 
is hardly any kind of grain or corn that Pigeons will refuse, but their 
staple food should be grey peas, with an occasional change, in the 
shape of wheat, oats or barley, or the small kind of pulse called 
Pigeon's beans. Seeds are sometimes given as stimulants, especially 
hemp seed, of which they are very fond ; but much of it is injurious 
to them, being heating, and likely to induce skin diseases and diarrhoea. 
A little green food occasionally, when they do not go abroad, is good, 
such as lettuce or salad ; care must be taken that it is all fresh. They 
like boiled potatoes, and soaked bread, ham or bacon fat, cut small ; 
and all these are good, now and then, but not often. 
BREEBINa AND KEARINO. 
The amateur Pigeon breeder should always start with the cheapest 
and commonest sorts, and introduce the rarer and more expensive 
ones into his house gradually ; either by buying quite young birds, 
or eggs to place under the common birds, which are nearly always 
the best nurses. The aristocratic varieties will be more likely to 
stay in a house well peopled with others, and they will be relieved 
