HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 
1912 
21 
brothers Adam — and none 
may gainsay their success 
and merited preeminence in 
the architectural world of 
their day — deemed no detail 
too trivial for their personal 
care. As soon as clients in 
general come to realize the 
true significance of the lesser 
buildings in helping either to 
make or mar a place, archi¬ 
tects will be found ready 
enough to bestow proper ef¬ 
fort upon them. 
In the location of the dove¬ 
cote, considerable latitude of 
choice can be exercised. 
Some may choose to have it 
hard by and almost adjoining the 
house. It is often so placed in Eng¬ 
land and France and, in fact, several 
of the illustrations show it in that po¬ 
sition. If the occupants of the house, 
however, are fidgety and nervous and 
dislike to hear animal noises or the 
matin twitter of sparrows in the ivy, 
the well-nigh incessant billing and 
cooing from the dovecote would sure¬ 
ly drive them to the verge of distrac¬ 
tion, and it would be better to build 
it elsewhere. Usually there is a con¬ 
venient spot somewhere near the 
stable or barn and there is the further 
advantage that whatever attention is 
given the pigeons can readily be given 
from that quarter. A dozen other 
suitable sites for a dovecote might 
present themselves, but the question 
of placing must in the end be settled 
by such considerations as local con¬ 
ditions may suggest. 
At all events, whatever location 
may be ultimately pitched upon, it is 
most essential to select a place of 
safety well beyond the reach of cats 
or predatory vermin. If the openings 
are in any way accessible 
to these marauders they 
may work dreadful havoc 
in your cote whenever 
they discover the way 
thither, and that they will 
not be long in doing. 
There must be no ledges 
they can run along or any 
convenient means of 
climbing that they can 
avail themselves of. 
Nothing can be more dis¬ 
couraging than to go 
some fine day and find 
your squabs all gone or 
lying dead with their 
throats cut and their 
blood sucked out. The 
caution concerning preda¬ 
tory vermin must certain¬ 
ly be read to include rats, 
especially where the dovecote 
is a separate structure resting 
on its own foundations, as in 
some of the French examples. 
With concrete or metal mesh¬ 
ing they must be made proof 
below against rodents’ gnaw¬ 
ing. 
While it is absolutely nec¬ 
essary that the pigeons’ quar¬ 
ters be protected from in¬ 
trusion by animals, there 
ought always to be some way 
for man to enter. Of course in 
the large dovecotes such pro¬ 
vision is always made. Small 
dovecotes, however, particu¬ 
larly those fastened under eaves or 
in gable ends, afford no access ex¬ 
cept by reaching the arm through the 
holes for the incomings and out¬ 
goings of the birds. When making 
a small dovecote for such a position, 
be sure to provide some way of open¬ 
ing the whole front on hinges when¬ 
ever it may be desirable. Occasion¬ 
ally dovecotes are set so high in gable 
ends that they cannot be reached even 
with the longest ladders. Such an 
arrangement may be picturesque but 
otherwise can be only unsatisfactory. 
Under the entrance holes there 
should always be a ledge or perching- 
board quite wide enough to allow the 
incoming birds to alight comfortably 
from flight. As to the number of 
holes, convenience and the style of 
the dovecote are the only deciding 
factors. In the little eave or gable 
cotes, constructed inside like honey¬ 
combs, a hole for each nest is neces¬ 
sary. In larger cotes, where the nests 
are ranged around an open space, 
four or five holes will be enough. 
The matter of exposure is import¬ 
ant. Small cotes with the 
openings all on one side 
ought not to be placed in 
exposed positions where 
they will have to face all 
the cold piercing winds 
and driving storms of 
winter. In our climate 
the best exposures are 
toward the southeast or 
southwest where they will 
be more sheltered in win¬ 
ter and will get the rays 
of the sun when its 
warmth is most needed. 
Above all else, the dove¬ 
cote must be dry; damp¬ 
ness will assuredly bring 
a train of troubles. The 
best way of insuring 
(Continued on page 61) 
oimply constructed boxes such as this may be placed beneath the eaves 
of the bam for a small flock of pigeons 
By building a tower at the end of a stone wall a 
satisfactory and picturesque dovecote was made 
An old barn utilized the vacant attic space by curving the roof over the dovecote. 
The birds can be reached from inside 
