April 8. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
41 
: as the young animals being obliged to wear caps to make 
i their ears fall the right way; or they are pulled, stropped, 
stretched, and rubbed for so many hours daily. To obtain 
early maturity, the does are not allowed to rear but three or 
| four at a time, and frequently common does are kept as 
nurses. These are put to the buck at the same time as the 
j fancy does, by which means they are ready to rear the super¬ 
abundant young of the fancy does, their own young being 
I put out of the way altogether. The young Rabbits, when 
j forced for the shows, are sometimes kept in hutches lined 
with carpet, or iiannel. The room is artifically warmed, 
and they are supplied with the most nourishing food the 
owner can procure. This, however, I think, is the extreme 
of the Rabbit fancy, and this artificial mode of treatment 
makes them tender and more liable to disease in after-life, 
if not to premature old age. 
Good fancy Rabbits kept on a less extreme, or more 
natural treatment, where fancy in the stock and usefulness 
in the young are combined, is, 1 consider, the most rational 
mode; and to combine nature, beauty, and usefulness, is to 
obtain the height of Rabbit fancy.—13. 1'. Buent. 
BREEDING PILE GAME FOWLS. 
“W. C.” is desirous to know how to breed l'ilo Game 
fowls successfully; and having, from time to time, gleaned 
i useful information from your valuable paper myself, it is 
but my duty to return the favour, if what I write is con¬ 
sidered worthy of insertion. 
Now, the way I used to breed them, twenty years ago 
(and 1 do not think it has been superseded yet), was as 
1 follows:—I chose a White hen. and if she has a black 
feather somewhere about her all the better; but I would 
not desire above one, and she should be two or th-co years 
old. I put her with a Black-reel cock in his llrst year, and, 
if I could get him, he should have a white leather in his 
tail. However, the white feather may be dispensed with; 
for I take that as a proof lie is of that colour; and in the 
event of his not having the white feather he should, what I j 
call, cut a white neck ; that is, the bottom of his hackles 
should bo white, and the Huff on the rump be of the same I 
colour; but if you know he is bred from Riles it does not 
matter so much. Rutting these two together, their legs and 
bills being of one colour, you cannot fail of having first- 
rate Piles and Black reds, as they will scarcely throw any 
other than these two colours. —Rouekt Geegouy, Bridge- 
street, Helper. 
Another correspondent bears similar testimony, only the 
colour of the parents were reversed by him. 
“W. C.” wishes to kuow how the Rile Game fowl was 
“ originally produced.” This I am not prepared to answer; 
but as he wishes to hear the results of different crosses, I 
beg to inform him that I have some Riles which were bred 
from a White Game cock and Black breasted Red Game 
hen. These were commended at Keighley and Bedford in 
1855. I think that mostly, when thus bred, the cocks 
(oftener than the pullets) come sooty-coloured, and rather 
inclined to a blue tinge in their feathers, which is very 
objectionable ; at least thus I have found it.— Thomas H. 
1). Bayley, Ielncell House, near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. 
PIGEONS. 
THE RING DOVE. —COLUMBA RALUMBUS 
j TORQUATUS. 
French, Le llamier. German, Die Ringlctauhc. 
This is the. largest of our native Doves, or wild Pigeons, 
and is also known by the names of Cushat, Wood Quest, 
Ring Pigeon, and Great Wood Pigeon. It is to be found in j 
most wooded districts, inhabiting the temperate and warmer 
parts of Europe, and Bechstein says also of Asia. In this 1 
country Wood Pigeons are too well known to require a 
very minute description. Their general plumage is of a 
dark asliy-grey; on each side of the neck is a half moon¬ 
shaped white spot that nearly encircles the neck, from which 
circumstance they derive the name of Ring Dove; across the j 
middle of the wing there is also a white mark, formed by the | 
covert feathers of that part, which are white; so that when 
the wing is closed the lower edge appears white ; the breast 
has a violet brown tinge, the neck is glossed on the sides, 
but not so much as is usual with the house Pigeons; the 
flight feathers are a dull black, having a narrow white edge ; 
the tail is dark slate-coloured, having a black bar at the ex¬ 
tremity, with a light, ashen-grey band across the centre, on 
the under side of the feathers ; the belly is dull white ; the 
beak is a little more than an inch long, of the same form, 
but rather stouter than a common Pigeon’s, of a delicate 
flesh colour, and about the nostrils of a red colour, the 
coverings of which are white; the irides of the eyes are an 
opaque white or pearl colour; the feet, or shanks, are short, 
of a dull red, the feathers covering about half their length ; 
the toes rather long and well adapted for perching ; the 
nails dark horn-coloured; from the tip of the beak to the 
end of the tail they measure about seventeen inches, and 
! from tip to tip of the expanded wings twenty-nine inches. 
| This variety of the Columbie are arboreal in their habits, 
perching and building their nests on trees; they usually 
iive solitarily in pairs during the breeding season, but in 
: winter congregate in large flocks. The nest is formed of 
; twigs like a platform, slightly depressed in the centre, and 
j they lay two white eggs. They usually have two broods in 
a season—one in spring and the other about harvest. It is 
reported that the spring-hatched young ones often breed the 
same year. They feed on all kinds of grain and seeds, and 
! cat also Acorns, Beacbmast, Ivy and other berries, Ac. 
I They are thought to be destructive to the corn crops, but I 
believe the damage they do is greatly exaggerated. It is 
true, that at seed time they will sometimes fill their crops 
with such grains that have not been properly covered, but 
as they cannot dig r.or scratch, they cannot exhume that 
which is properly sown. At harvest time they will also pick 
up the scattered Peas that are cast abroad by the splitting 
of the pods, which will always happen with some pods, be¬ 
fore the main crop is ripe; and they may, occasionally, 
pick a few grains from a stack of wheat; but, after all. this 
lklle harm is well paid for in the destruction of an immense 
number of weeds, the seeds of which they eat. As an ex¬ 
ample of this I extract the following;— 
“ An agricultural friend called Mr. St. John’s attention, on j 
the Gth of March, to an immense flock of Wood Pigeons I 
busily at work on a field of young Clover, which had been 
under barley the last season. ‘On this,’ says lie, ‘in further¬ 
ance of my favourite axiom, that every wild animal is of 
some service lu ns, I determined to shoot some of the Wood 
Pigeons to see what they actually were feeding on ; for I did 
not at all fall into my friend’s idea that they were grazing 
! on his clover. Eight were accordingly shot as they flew 
over his head. On being opened, every Pigeon's crop was 
as full as it could possibly be of the seeds of two of the 
worst seeds in the country, the Wild Mustard and the Rag¬ 
weed, which they had found remaining on the surface of 
the ground, these plants ripening and dropping their seeds 
before the corn is cut. Now, no amount of human labour 
and search could have collected, on the same ground, at (hat 
time of the year, as much of these seeds ns was consumed 
by each of these five or six hundred Wood Pigeons daily 
for two or three weeks together.”— Wild Sports of the High¬ 
lands. 
The Ring Dove is a favourite with the poets, who often 
refer to its note, a deep sounding coo-oo-hoo, and the cock 
also performs some droll gestures, jumping about in various 
i attitudes when playing to his mate. Their flesh is also es¬ 
teemed for eating, provided they are killed before they eat 
the Ivy berries in winter, which make it bitter. 
Many attempts have been made to domesticate them, or 
to cross them with tame pigeons, but I have never heard of 
any one succeeding, as from their roving propensity it is im¬ 
possible to accustom them to return to a pigeon-house. I 
once had a lion Ring Dove paired with a cock Dragon 
Pigeon, but though they built, laid, and sat, 1 never had any 
produce, as the Ring Dove’s peculiar jumps and gestures 
always frustrated the Cock’s wishes at coupling time. 
If brought up from the nest young, they may he tamed, 
and, I believe, will breed in confinement. Bechstein re¬ 
marks, he saw a white Ring Dove in the autumn of 170-.1.— 
B. R. Biiext. 
