504 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ June is was. 
in pole housea or boxes against a wall (both miserable habitations, 
be it remarked), give them air enough, and too much ; but the more 
careful who house them in substantial buildings with wired aviaries 
in front must take care to have proper ventilation in the said build¬ 
ings—not draughts, but shutters, sliding or to let down on hinges, 
to admit air in warm weather, and during great heat the doors 
should be left open all night. Of course, we presuppose that the 
outer aviary is strong and the wire quite vermin-proof. Some 
people keep Pigeons permanently in sheds, well roofed, with back 
and ends enclosed, and the front of wire. Many kinds become very 
hardy, and thrive well in such quarters, but we should never our¬ 
selves construct such abodes, for in winter young birds must often 
succumb to cold in them, and during snow they are miserable. 
Another thing to be remembered and guarded against is that some 
colours of plumage, especially red and yellow, are much spoilt 
by hot sun. The richer and sounder the colour be, the less it is 
affected. Still, even the best birds do suffer in beauty, and so tem¬ 
porarily in exhibition value, from exposure. This does not much 
matter if they are not required for show till they have moulted, but 
directly the moult begins valuable specimens should be kept out of 
burning sun, otherwise the tips of the new coloured feathers are 
almost bleached, and the coloured parts as a whole appear mottled 
and broken instead of smooth and flat. 
As in the poultry yard so in the Pigeon loft, special care must in 
summer be given to all sanitary arrangements. The floor of the 
house should be kept thickly covered with sand, gravel, or dried 
earth, and this must be frequently raked over. If, however, Pigeons 
are kept in a boarded loft sawdust will be found the cleanest and 
best coating for the floor, but then gravel or grit must be given in 
pans. The plainer and less complicated the nest boxes are the 
better. In the crevices of even the plainest, vermin will sometimes 
lurk. If they are anywhere about they will show themselves in the 
newly hatched nestlings, and they must at once be exterminated or 
they will prove fatal to the health of the young birds, and some¬ 
times become such a plague as to drive the old ones to desert their 
offspring. The commonest of these pests are mites, black at first, 
and then crimson from being gorged with the blood of the unfor¬ 
tunate Pigeons. They dislike paraffin. A drop of it should here 
and there be dabbed on the young birds, and it may be freely rubbed 
with a brush into all the joints of the nest boxes. At the age of 
from two to three months young Pigeons go through a partial moult, 
and suffer from a kind of distemper. They then mope, and if the 
weather is at all cold often shiver. Old birds and odd cocks fre¬ 
quently persecute and drive them from their food, and a little care 
must be bestowed on them. The coarser and commoner specimens 
soon get over it and scarcely show it at all, but the smaller and more 
delicate birds must be watched and petted or many will die. If we 
merely wished to perpetuate the race through the most robust and 
largest birds, as in the case of many kinds of fowls, Nature would 
make her own selection and rid herself of all weakly and delicate 
Pigeons, but in the case of most of our Toy breeds these smaller and 
more refined birds are precisely those which we wish to rear for 
their beauty and elegance. As soon as a young Pigeon is seen to 
droop our first care is to bring it into a warm place ; we do not mean a 
hot room, but a place protected from draughts by day and from damp 
by night. A few exhibition pens in an unused room are a capital 
Pigeon hospital. Each must be cleanly sanded and have a drinking 
vessel hung up in it. Here give the birds whatever food they seem 
to like best; a little hemp will generally tempt the appetite of the 
most sickly. With no other treatment than this rest from the bustle 
of the Pigeon house and shelter from extremes of beat and cold we 
have cured many a drooping bird, and returned it fat and happy in 
a week or fortnight. Pigeons thus cossetted become very tame. 
Our own often learn where the room with the pens is, fly in at the 
window in after days, and if a pen is open pen themselves. We 
have traced the success of some exhibition birds partially to this 
source. They are accustomed to a pen and like it, and so always 
show themselves to the best advantage in one. 
There is a far more serious bane of the Pigeon loft than this 
common distemper, one which in highly bred birds generally proves 
fatal if once it develope itself—we mean canker in the mouth and 
throat. How far it is a cause of illness and death, or how far an 
effect of some internal malady of which we are ignorant, we have 
never been able entirely to make up our minds. We do not for a 
moment pretend to any scientific knowledge of surgery or pathology. 
We have carefully observed this and other diseases in Pigeons, and 
give the results of our observations and treatment only for what they 
are worth. Canker may appear in Pigeons of any age. In adults 
it is almost always curable ; in squeakers it is very seldom so. The 
signs of it are a yellowish white substance in the throat and mouth, 
which, if not checked, rapidly spreads, and in the case of very young 
birds often fills the throat and mouth and absolutely chokes them. 
What inclines us to think that it may be the effect of some deep- 
seated malady rather than itself the disease is that we have often 
seen nestlings fail, look rough and dumpy, and either refuse to be 
fed by their parents or become unable to swallow before any visible 
signs of canker appear in the throat. In a day or two, however, the 
fatal white spots make their appearance, spread rapidly, and death 
soon follows. In the case of adults or very strong young birds every 
one of these spots must at once be touched with a caustic pencil. 
They generally reappear, and have again to be burnt out. '1 he 
remedy is, we fear, a painful one, and not always successful. In 
the case of nestlings under a month old it seldom succeeds. We 
have been trying another remedy, of the efficacy of which we have 
great hopes It is, however, against our custom ever to give vague 
untried recipes, and till we have made further and more complete 
experiments we shall not publish it. We hope ere long to devote 
an entire article to this disease and its cure.—C. 
Fowls and Artificial Incubation in India. —The report of 
the Superintendent of the Government farm at Khandish states :— 
“ The efforts made to secure a number of Persian fowls have, so far, 
been unsuccessful, although the Bombay market has been carefully 
watched. Superior indigenous kinds have been tried under good 
treatment, and the improvement in some cases is surprising. The 
eggs of some fowls got from the villages averaged only 2 ozs., while 
the next generation, well fed through chickenbood, now lay eggs 
averaging over 2$ ozs. One of Christy’s hydro-incubators was re¬ 
ceived direct from the makers in the month of November. The incu¬ 
bator was at once set going, and although nominally a ninety-egg 
drawer the accommodation is sufficient for 130 village common eggs. 
As such a quantity was not at once procurable, the remaining space 
was filled up with a miscellaneous lot of quail, pigeon, and other 
eggs, most of which submitted to the process of incubation. On the 
nineteenth day fifteen in twenty of the fowls’ and all of the quails’ 
eggs had hatched, while those of the pigeons were found to contain 
living birds. Much cannot at present be said as to the value of 
artificial incubation for India ; it is much to be desired, however, that 
this or some other means may soon be discovered to develope this 
much-neglected branch of rural industry, so that the country might 
be generally well provided with eggs and birds, and thus enable 
district officers and others to secure their needed supplies on more 
strictly commercial principles. Mr. Robertson, the Commissioner, 
writing to the Superintendent of the farm, trusts the experiments 
with the hydro-incubator may be satisfactory. He is convinced that 
a highly remunerative and successful result can be obtained, as he 
has now for nearly four years used with the most remarkable success 
one of Christy’s hydro-incubators. The success with ducks has 
always been greater than with fowls.” 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Canary Unhealthy (F. (7.).—As you appear satisfied there are no insects 
on the bird we can only attribute the symptoms you describe to incipient and 
premature moulting. In this case feed the bird generously, giving a little egg, 
millet seed, maw seed, and groats, and not much green food, plantain stalks 
being the best, nor is it advisable to give hemp seed. Birds usually become 
drowsy on the eve of moulting. Keep it from draughts and put a rusty nail in 
the water. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40” N.; Long. 0° 8' 0” W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
1882. 
<£> & « 
a to ai c 
g-MXl > 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
fl . 
©t* 
a 
| Temp, of 
1 Sou at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
a 
‘3 
tt 
June. 
a is o |-) 
B- ej 
Dry. 
Wet. 
So 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Sun. 4 
Inches. 
29.745 
deg. 
58.5 
deg. 
55.8 
s.w. 
deg. 
57.2 
deg 
69.2 
deg. 
52.6 
deg 
119.8 
deg. 
49.4 
In. 
0.215 
Mon. 5 
29.805 
59.8 
54.4 
s.w. 
57.2 
64.9 
48.5 
101.0 
45.4 
0.049 
Tues. 6 
29.712 
57.0 
55.6 
s. 
56.8 
60.2 
54.8 
106.0 
54.8 
0.152 
Wed. 7 
29.749 
61.8 
54.0 
w. 
56.7 
69.3 
51.8 
125.8 
50 3 
o.oio 
Tlmrs. 8 
29.888 
60.0 
65.0 
w. 
57.3 
60.2 
47.5 
113.5 
43.2 
0.334 
Friday 9 
Satur. 10 
29.446 
50.6 
50.6 
s.w. 
57.0' 
62.2 
49.0 
119.8 
46.8 
0.414 
29.570 
57.9 
53.3 
N.W. 
56.8 
61.7 
49.7 
100.2 
49 2 
— 
29.702 
57.9 
54.1 
57.0 
65.7 
50.8 
113.2 
49.4 
1.174 
REMARKS. 
4th.—Fine on the whole; but squally at times, with sharp sudden showers. 
5th.—Overcast and high wind. 
6th.—Wet morning; fine afternoon and evening. 
7th.—Shower at 10 A.M.; afterwards fine, bright, and breezy. 
8th.—Showery in forenoon ; afternoon fine ; rain after 7 p.M. 
9th.—Frequent heavy showers with bright intervals ; lightning and thunder at 
intervals from 0T0 till 6 p.M. 
10th.—Dull overcast morning ; fine and bright latter part of day. 
A showery week ; days cooler than last week ; nights rather warmer (owing to 
increase of cloud) ; thunder nearly all the afternoon of the 9th.—G. J. SYMONS 
