16 G 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[June 13. 
tiresome job, as tlie pest is always under the leaf, and bad to 
get at without stooping. Now for my plan, which I find 
very expeditiously accomplished. I cut an inch board 13 
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inches square, and cut a circle out of the centre, about _ 1 
inches in diameter; also a cross cut on each side of the 
circle, to admit the stems of the plant if spreading. I then 
saw it in two, one half of which I screw to two strong ribs of 
wood ; I then fix a hinge at one end (a piece of gutta perch a 
is as good as anything), and near the other end put a wire 
pin as a fastening. I fix a cord to each corner of the ribs, 
one having a slit to admit the cord without letting the laiot 
pass through, and a wire pin to fasten it. I fix this wooden 
supporter on the pot, and turn it wrong side up, and then bang 
it on a hook in the centre of the greenhouse doors when 
open, the four cords being joined in the centre like a ring. 
I have then the plant inverted, and can get round it and see 
every leaf; and after washing with a sponge can give it a 
good syringing with a watering-pot without disturbing the 
mould, which, if not near the edge of the pot, I put a 
piece of tow to prevent the ball moving. As my long yam 
may not be explicit I send you a sketch.— Evesham. 
THE DOMESTIC PIGEON. 
GENEKAL HISTORY OF PIGEONS. 
(Continued from p. 88.) 
Young pigeons, like turtle-doves, come into the woiId 
covered with a light, or nearly white, down, which disappears 
entirely sometime after the body is fledged. It is not until 
this has taken place that they risk quitting the nest, and 
that their parents forsake them to recommence laying. They 
do not, however, stray far from the place where they have 
been reared, but remain in the neighbourhood until the time 
for migrating arrives, when they unite themselves with their 
family to the first band that passes in. their sight, and go 
together to seek in the south, perhaps in Africa, some hos¬ 
pitable land sheltered from the rigours. of winter. Buffon, 
like the naturalists who have followed him, draws a delight¬ 
ful picture of the manners of these birds, which needs only 
truth to make it admirable. “ All,” he says, “ have qualities 
which are common to them : the love of society, the attach, 
ment to their kind, a gentleness of manner, reciprocal fidelity- 
and the inseparable love of the male and female. Their 
cleanliness and the care they bestow upon themselves show 
a desire to please, of which their graceful movements are a 
still greater proof. No ill humours disturb their, lives; no 
disgust, no quarrelling : they employ them whole time in the 
service of love, and the care of then - offspring, equally dividing 
every laborious duty, the male, anxious to participate in, or 
even take upon himself, the maternal charge, regularly 
covering in his turn both the eggs and the young ones to 
spare his companion the trouble., and to place that equality 
between them on which the happiness of every lasting union 
must depend.” Yet these pigeons partake of the vices of 
society, for it often happens that after having been coupled 
for a longer or shorter time, a female grows weary of her 
mate, whose caresses she at first refuses, and some days 
after forsakes him altogether, attaching herself to the first 
that offers, without any apparent cause for such caprice. 
Such infidelity is more frequently among the females than 
the males, who, however, seldom fail to profit by the kind¬ 
ness of some other female, who, without quitting her own 
male, bestows also her caresses on him. r J he result is, that 
the amateur who calculates on a breed of any particular kind, 
is greatly astonished to find his young pigeons valueless, 
and of a crossed breed. Sometimes, but more rarely, the 
male entirely abandons his wife, and returns all her caresses 
with blows. These disorders may take place all through the 
year, but they are most frequent dming the moulting sea¬ 
son, that is to say, in August and September. The amateur 
must watch these false couplings very carefully, so as to 
remedy them instantly; for if he leaves these birds to follow 
their own inclination, or is negligent about them, he will 
have in the end nothing but degenerate and mixed varieties, 
incapable of pleasing the eye or taste, and entirely valueless. 
It sometimes happens, also, that a pigeon—this model of 
constancy and chastity—is not only unfaithful to his com¬ 
panion, but obliges her to live together with a preferred rival. 
He watches both of them, and with blows compels them, at 
least in his presence, to remain faithful to him; but the 
result of this bigamy is, that being unable to attend to the 
cares of two broods at once, he suffers, wastes away, and 
sometimes dies the victim of his own inconstancy. Besides 
which, the eggs being badly covered, the little ones are 
always thin and sickly, if they do not perish young, or even 
before they are hatched. These inconveniences are remedied 
by means of a breeding cage ; but it frequently happens that 
a bird persists in the caprice which has caused it to forsake 
its mate or female, and resolutely refuses to couple with it 
again. A young female frequently obstinately refuses to 
couple with the male which has been given to her, in spite of 
every means the amateur may employ ; and the only plan 
then is to set her at liberty, and leave her to make her 
own choice according to her fancy. 
It vill be no matter of surprise if she at once chooses the 
most unfit, and to her own size, the most disproportioned 
pigeon, and oblige him to couple with her by her importunate 
advances; but, happily for the preservation of pure races, 
these examples are very rare. Sometimes a young female, 
after having refused coupling, attaches herself without choice 
to several males, and lays her eggs alone, that she may not 
be compelled to devote herself to one companion only. When 
a male becomes old or infirm, his wife rarely remains with 
him, and the others constantly refuse to match themselves 
with him. It sometimes happens, however, that his com¬ 
panion having grown old with him, does not forsake him ; but, 
taking any passing lover that may chance to offer, she pro¬ 
duces a family of bastards, which the male is obliged to take 
care of as if they were his own. “And this state of things,” 
says hi. Vieillot, “ may last until extreme old age; for even 
when these birds lose the power of flying and walking, such 
is the wisdom and power of nature, they still retain that of 
deglutition, fatiguing as it is, and they can still cover the 
eggs and feed the young, which enables the amateur to pre 
serve, without infringing the laws of economy, those old 
birds to which, from their beauty, or any other cause, they 
have become attached." 
When a female feels an antipathy for the male with which 
she is wished to couple, she stedfastly refuses his caresses ; 
nothing can please or cause her any emotion ; squatted in 
a corner of her prison, ruffled and pouting, she only moves 
to eat and drink, or to repulse her companion’s caresses with 
rage. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE DOVE-COT PIGEONS. 
(Continued from page 89.) 
3. The Fugitive Rock-Pigeon : Colwmba liviafugiens .— 
This resembles very closely the preceding one, but differs 
from it in its plumage, which is generally paler and more of 
a slate colour ; as well as in the white part of its back, which 
extends much further than in the first; and in the irregu¬ 
larity of its colours, which vary individually-—a certain mark 
of a more ancient domesticity; and, finally, in the difference 
of its manners when living in a free state. Some among 
them are found to have the iris grey, and black heads. That 
drawn by Frisch is white, with the head and tail red; their 
bill is generally black or lead colour, and their heads blackish 
or of a red tinge. 
This pigeon never roosts ; it avoids shady places and the 
silence of the forests. It generally inhabits the holes ot 
walls in old buildings, or even the clefts of rocks. Many 
years since some pairs took possession of holes which exist 
under the arches of the Pont-Neuf, in Paris, and there 
brought up their progeny in the. midst of the tumult of the 
capital. It is evidently a bud escaped from our dovehouses, 
