202 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 24. 
without a shell. They can never be hatched, although 
fruitful, because they will not bear pressure. This fault 
often proceeds from the female not possessing the secretory 
organs which should furnish the calcareous earth that forms 
the shell; then there is no remedy. Sometimes it may he 
caused by a simple organic obstruction occasioned by fat or 
inflammation, and in this case the bird may be cured by 
! changing the nature of its food. 
In all cases we should advise amateurs not to take this 
| trouble, except for valuable animals, as the success is always 
doubtful. We also meet with couples that constantly have 
barren eggs. The difficulty is to discover which of the two is 
barren. To do this, we must couple them with two others, 
and immediately remove the one in whose nest we find un¬ 
fruitful eggs at the first laying. However, we must not be 
surprised if both should produce young ones, for this defect 
may be brought ou by an incompatibility of organisation 
altogether inexplicable. If several pairs of pigeons should 
be attacked with this complaint in a dovecote or dove-liouse, 
we must not hasten to uncouple them, for in all probability 
it might be the result of bad food, or some other cattse 
besides that of sterility; for example, to produce this effect, 
it is only necessary to have two or three smelter pigeons in 
a pigeon-house of fifty pairs. In these two cases, nothing 
is more easy than to remedy these inconveniences, either by 
changing the quality of their food, or by removing the 
disturbers. 
A pigeon may preserve its fruitfulness to the age of ten, 
or twelve, or even fourteen years ; but it generally loses it 
sooner. The females especially do not become exhausted 
so soon as the males, and when we perceive, that as they 
advance in age, they lay a greater number of barren eggs, we 
must take away their old male, and give them a young one, 
in order to procure again a good production. When an old 
pair of pigeons no longer produce, it may be useful to keep 
S them to bring up other young ones, and even to sit on fresh 
! eggs, for these birds preserve the faculty of hatching and 
I feeding the young ones, even to an extreme old age. Some 
have been seen to occupy themselves very usefully in this 
manner, even after having lost their sight. A fact more in¬ 
teresting, because it shows a character of great kindness in 
some of these animals. As soon as they hear the plaintive, 
cry of a young pigeon neglected by its parents, they hasten 
to feed it, and will frequently heat its unnatural parents to 
make them return to the cares of their young family. 
When we possess a good pair of pigeons, we must not let 
them lose time by setting on clear (barren) eggs, but remove 
them; and they will produce others in about eight or nine 
days. To satisfy oneself if the egg is fruitful, we must look 
through it in the following manner:—Take one and hold it 
between the eye and the light of a candle, or the rays of the 
sun; if we cannot perceive in the middle of it a small 
round substance, forming a dark spot, it is not fruitful. 
If tbe egg is good, we shall immediately perceive the 
i spot we have just mentioned ; four days after we shall see 
j some small blood-coloured vessels extending round it; the 
| sixth day the egg will have a darker tint, and entirely lose 
its transparency. Sometimes, however, the little one may 
perish in the shell, at an age more or less advanced. It is 
as well to know how to discover this, by the following signs: 
| the egg becomes a deeper colour than usual, and is covered 
with some whitish spots, and its weight decreases as the 
young one withers. On the contrary, if it is good, it be¬ 
comes heavy, and one may perceive a vacuum made by the 
separation of a membrane towards the large end, but a 
little obliquely. 
(Z'o be continued.) 
DOMESTIC PIGEONS. 
{Continuedfrom page 1-39.) 
TWENTY-SECOND RACE. 
Pied Pigeon (Columba impacla.). — The under man¬ 
dible of the beak is white; it has a small spot of blue, 
yellow, black, or red, colouring the upper mandible, and 
extending to the middle of the head; the tail is the same 
colour as the spot, and all the rest of the body is white; 
the feet are naked, and the iris black. 
Some of the Pied pigeons are occasionally found with 
a white tail, but these degenerate birds are not valued by 
the amateur. Besides, pigeons of this race may easily bo 
obtained by crossing a male or female with a mixture, or a 
Carrier with a black tail and white plumage, which are com¬ 
monly to be met with. In the first generation the young 
ones will already have a coloured beau on the front of the 
head, and in the second they may be perfect. 
Common Pied Pigeon {Columba impacla vulgaris ).— 
This bird, which is much esteemed by the amateur, is 
marked as if with the stroke or dash of a pencil, black, 
blue, or red. It has a filament round the eyes, and is about 
the size of a common mixture. It is very fruitful. 
Yellow Pied Pigeon (Columba impacla lulea ).—This 
does not differ from the preceding, unless it is in the tail 
and cloak, which are yellow. These birds, as well as the 
preceding kind, produce well in the closest captivity; even 
in a common parrot’s cage. 
{To be continued.) 
WARMTH, NOT MOISTURE, EOR HENS NESTS. 
Seeing so many complaints in your valuable paper about 
the non-productiveness of eggs, and also seeing that a 
“ Constant Subscriber ” recommends placing mould in the 
hatching nests, with turf above it; as I have tried the same 
plan, I take the liberty of stating that 1 cannot say that I 
have seen much benefit from it. I am disposed to attribute 
the unproductiveness to other causes than that of the 
“ dryness of the season.” As a proof of which, I might 
mention that a friend of mine, by my recommendation, 
placed his hatching hens on a loft, beneath which there was 
a large fire, and the result was, as I anticipated, exceedingly 
favourable; there being about 85 per cent, of birds for the 
number of eggs, many of which were “ carried.” It was 
impossible to select a dryer place. I might also state that 
I received some eggs (which had travelled by rail near 200 
miles), seven of which I placed beneath a hen, in a box 
made of half-inch deal , and suspended against a wall, all of 
which proved productive. The birds (Spanish) are about a 
month old, and “ doing well.” 
If I might be allowed to venture an opinion, I would say 
that if the eggs have been rendered fertile, that their unpro¬ 
ductiveness, may, in many cases, he attributable to placing 
too many of them under each hen. When a hen has more 
than she can properly cover, those on the outside are 
not kept up to the temperature necessary to the healthy 
development of the chicks, the consequence of which is, 
that they are seldom strong enough to extricate them¬ 
selves from their shells. Another disadvantage arises from 
giving too many eggs; the hen, anxious to cover them all, 
pullstliem beneath her so much, that they are almost sure 
to get one above another (if I may so write), a position in 
which many of them get broken. In my opinion, a hen 
never ought to have more than 9 Spanish, 11 China, or 13 
Hamburgh fowl’s eggs. 
| I purposed to allude to the question—Which is the most 
