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REARING AND MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS. 
THE REARING AND MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS, 
There is nothing more delightful to the sensitive mind than the sight of 
a pair of turtle-doves. They are emblematical of enduring affection and 
constant attachment, and afford lessons of love to brothers and sisters; for 
this reason, the rearing and management of them is a delightful task to 
young persons, and the lessons they may learn in these labors are many and 
important. 
Pigeons have been known from the earliest ages. The dove was conse¬ 
crated to the goddess of beauty, and a pair of turtle-doves, or two young 
pigeons, were a mother’s first offering among the chosen people of God. The 
use of the carrier-pigeon as a messenger, was celebrated by the poets of 
Arabia, Greece, and Pome. ./Elian mentions that when Taurostheus was 
victor at the Olympic games, a carrier-pigeon bore the intelligence to his 
father with great rapidity; and Pliny relates that at the siege of Modena a 
correspondence was carried on by means of these birds between Decimus 
Prutus and Ilirtius. 
Pigeons live together in pairs, and when a cock and hen once form an 
attachment the union generally lasts, and the instances of faithful and en¬ 
during attachment between these birds are very many. The pigeon in a 
wild state breeds only once a year, but the domestic pigeons of the dove-cot 
will breed every month or sis weeks, and when the weather is severe, and 
the fields are covered with snow, they must be fed. In fine weather, how- 
