PIGEONS.
The practice of rearing pigeons for fancy or amusement has been for a long time prevalent in England. In ancient times the “dove-cote” was a general appendix to the family hall or farmer’s homestead; and at the present time it may still occasionally be observed peering above the trees in country districts; while in London the pigeon-loft, with its “dormers,” “area,” “traps,” and other appliances, may be frequently seen on the house-tops, more especially in the districts inhabited by the working classes.
Pigeons live together in pairs; and when a cock and hen once form an attachment, the union generally lasts during their lives. The pigeon in a wild state breeds only twice or thrice in the season, but the domestic birds will breed every six weeks, or during the greater part of the year.
Whatever number of broods a pair of pigeons may bring up in a year, the hen never lays but two eggs before she sits. She incubates for eighteen days after the laying of the second egg. Both the cock and hen assist in the hatching: the hen usually sits from the afternoon till about eleven o’clock on the following morning; the cock then takes her place, and sits while she goes out to feed and exercise herself, and generally keeps on the nest until two or three o’clock in the afternoon.
When first hatched, the young are fed for about eight days with a milky secretion prepared in the crop of the parents, and regurgitated into the mouth of the young, and afterwards with grain and seeds the old ones have picked up in the fields and treasured in their crops. In this mode of supplying the young with food from the crop birds of the pigeon kind differ from those of any other family.
Formerly it was common to erect buildings as dove-cotes in the neighbourhood of great country mansions: many of these were of considerable size and elevation, as shown in the [engraving]. The custom, however, has fallen into disuse, and pigeon-houses of more moderate sizes are now generally employed.
A small one is very often formed from a wine-cask, which has holes cut in its sides, and a small platform made before each, to form a resting-place in front for the birds to alight upon. The interior is divided into chambers by the carpenter, or any boy of common carpentering ingenuity may readily do it himself. The cask is then elevated on a stout thick scaffolding pole or the trunk of a straight tree, and made perfectly secure. In arranging the internal chambers for the birds care should be taken that they are large enough for them to turn round in with ease. The cote should be fixed in a warmish spot, and not exposed to cold easterly and northerly winds. The top of the cask should be thatched or boarded, and this protection should come well over the holes and sides of the cote, so as to protect it from the heat of the sun in summer and the drifting of the rain in unseasonable weather.
The young fancier may employ one after the fashion shown on the [following page]: this, with its compartments, may be fixed up against the south or south-west side of a stable, barn, or out-house. The outside should be well painted, and the alighting places slightly slanted, so that the water or rain may not lodge on them, but run off to the ground outside. The whole should be so placed that it can be approached by a ladder, which ought not to be permanently attached to the cote, or it may be a means for the intrusion of cats and vermin.
It sometimes happens that a spare loft or room presents itself to the young pigeon-fancier, which may be made use of for a pigeon-house. When this is the case, it can easily be filled up with pigeon-boxes, which may be arranged round the sides, while holes are made on the outside of the building for the pigeons to fly in and out at. Broad flat perches may also be placed across the room, upon which the birds may rest. The boxes for the nests should be at least a foot square.
It is far more advantageous and profitable to keep pigeons in a spare room than to employ the dove-cotes on a pole, or those fixed against the side of a house, as double the number of young birds may be reared, the nests being sheltered from the inclemency of the weather.
As to the compartments, or nests, every one should be furnished with an earthenware nest-pan, of a size adapted to the pigeons for which they are intended. Sand or gravel should be sprinkled over the shelves and on the floor, as the small stones with which it abounds are useful to the birds in helping them to digest their food, and a little old mortar-rubbish or pounded burnt oyster-shells should be given, to supply the lime necessary for the shells of the eggs. Everything about them should be kept very clean, and the whole apparatus, of whatever kind it may be, should undergo a frequent and thorough purification, while the nest-pans or boxes should be well cleaned after every hatching.
There is a contrivance of great use which is employed for letting into the loft those birds who may not happen to come home before the areas are closed for the night. The object of this door, which is called the “bolting wire,” is to let the birds in without letting those in the loft pass out. It is made by placing before a square aperture cut in the pigeon-house a couple of wires about three inches apart from each other (as seen in the [drawing]): these swing loosely upon a piece of wood, which turns on a wire, and their lower ends come over the lower ledge on the inside. By this arrangement, when a bird outside presses against the bars and tries to get in, the whole opens inwards, and he easily enters; but if one from within tries to get out, the wires press against the ledge at the bottom, and effectually prevent his egress.
Within the pigeon-house should be placed boxes for the grain, pulse, and beans that the birds feed upon.
Pigeons are great devourers of food, and will eat any kind of grain, such as wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, vetches, Indian corn, tares, &c. Small beans, called pigeon’s beans, are the best general food for all pigeons. If possible, the peas, beans, or tares given to the birds should be old, as new pulse is apt to disagree, and purge them. Hempseed is very stimulating, and although pigeons are very fond of it, it should be sparingly given.
Pigeons are very fond of lime and salt, and to supply themselves peck out the mortar from between the tiles. To prevent this, it is best to make them what is called a “cat,” which will be exceedingly grateful to them, as it will tend to keep them in good health. This is done in the following manner:—
Mix some sifted gravel or earth with old mortar-rubbish, or pounded burnt shells, if this cannot be obtained; add a few handfuls of salt; and make the whole into a mass with water. Portions of this may be put into flower-pots, and placed in situations where the birds can get at them easily.
MATING CAGE.
Pigeons are often sadly annoyed by vermin. To prevent the increase of these intruders, the most scrupulous attention should be paid to cleanliness in every part of the houses, nests, and places of resort, and the birds should be provided with shallow pans of water to wash in.
Sometimes there is a little trouble attending the mating of pigeons, and it is of great importance that they should be properly matched, or the young will not be purely bred. The mating coops should have a thin lattice-work partition between them, so that the birds may make acquaintance with each other, and match together, when they may be placed in one pen. When they are properly mated, they may be left at liberty to arrange and build their nests, which they will do very readily. The illustration on the preceding page shows the construction of the mating cage.
VARIETIES OF PIGEONS.
The Columbidæ, or family of pigeons, are one of the most numerous and most widely distributed families of birds. They are all vegetable feeders; and many congregate in flocks. But notwithstanding their numbers, general distribution, and beauty, only two, out of a great number of species, have been brought into subjection by man: these are the common pigeon, or house pigeon, known as the Rock pigeon when in the wild state, and abundant in several parts of the cliffy and caverned shores of the British Islands, and the Collared, or Cream-coloured dove, with a narrow black collar round the neck. This latter is frequently kept in confinement: it breeds freely if in very large cages, and it may be reared in the open air in this country if protected during severe winters.
BLUE ROCK DOVE.
The Blue Rock dove is the undoubted origin of all the different varieties of domestic pigeons. It is a most beautiful bird; its general colour is blue, with two black bars across the wings. In some few of the large dove-cotes blue rocks still exist; but the pure race, uncontaminated by intermixture with any of the numerous varieties of domestic pigeons, is scarcely to be obtained except in the distant islands of the Hebrides, or in remote districts unfrequented by man. It is a swift flyer, a good forager, and a prolific bird; but its comparative wildness renders it ill adapted for a domestic pet.
THE ANTWERP, OR SMERLE.
Smerles are the Flying Pigeons of Belgium. These extraordinary birds, that perform races of 500 miles, returning home to Brussels and the adjacent towns from the south of France, and even from Spain, closely resemble the blue rock in general form; but, as shown in the [engraving], the feathers of the wings are rather broader, and the head and beak thicker and shorter. They are of various colours, as blue, checquered, red, mealy, &c. Their desire to return home is so great that it is useless to attempt to establish a stud of them, by liberating old birds, however long they may be shut up; the only plan is to rear young from them whilst confined in a room or loft, or to obtain young birds that have never flown at the place of their birth. These, from the peculiar noise they make, are termed “squeakers.”
We do not know any more delightful fancy for boys than Antwerps, as they are strong, hardy, fertile, and require no special trouble; good water and a little care in cleaning is all they ask; and they reward their owners by being always ready to convey to their home messages from any distance which they may have been trained to fly. The training is thus accomplished: the young birds, when they can fly round with the others, and dash about in the air in that vigorous style that characterises the breed, are taken a short distance from home and set free. They rise, and circling round and round, descry their home, and make straight for it.
Their next journey is longer, and so on; the distances are gradually increased, until the birds will return even for several hundred miles. When these birds are used to convey messages, the paper must be so attached as not to impede their flight. The proper mode of doing this is to write upon a strip of thin soft paper, about half an inch broad by three or four inches long: this is rolled round the leg, and secured by a thread. An ordinary letter, tied to the bird in the manner that is often represented in engravings, would entirely prevent its flight.
THE POUTER.
The breeds of pigeons that are most valued by fanciers are those that differ in the greatest degree from the blue rock doves and the common mongrel dove-house pigeons. Of these the Pouters, Carriers, and Tumblers are the most esteemed. The pouter is a remarkable bird, distinguished by the extraordinary power it possesses of inflating or blowing out the neck: it is also characterised by the extreme length of its legs, which should be feathered to the toes, and the length of the feathers of the wings and tail. Pouters are of various colours: some are purely white, but in general they are blue, or black, marked or pied with white upon the crop, and with white flight feathers in the wings; there are also red and yellow pied birds.
The properties for which a pouter is valued are usually stated as being five in number; viz. length of leg, length of feathers, slenderness of body, size of crop, and colour. Pouters possessing all these properties of the breed in a very perfect degree are rare, and consequently very valuable. Ten, or even twenty, pounds is no uncommon price for a pair of birds sufficiently good to win prizes in the competitions at the exhibitions of poultry and pigeons; but very fair specimens may be bought at the dealer’s for a few shillings per pair.
Pouters are not such good nurses as many other pigeons, often neglecting their young before they can feed themselves, when they die, unless fed by being crammed with beans at least twice a day. For this reason we would not recommend the young fancier to begin with this breed.
THE CARRIER.
The Carrier of the present day is not, as its name might seem to imply, ever used to carry messages, but is a high-class fancy variety, valued in proportion to the perfection of its properties. In a good carrier the beak is long, thick, and straight; the beak-wattle, or membrane at its base, well developed, and standing well up from the head. The eye-wattle, or membrane round the eye, should be large, flat, and circular; the skull narrow and long; the neck very slender and long; the plumage firm and glossy, the tail and flight feathers being long. The colour most valued in carriers is a brilliant jet black: many first-rate birds are what are called duns, a variety of brown. There are also white and blue carriers, and occasionally pied birds are seen. The blacks and duns are, however, the most perfect in properties; and they may be mated together without risk, as they will always produce either black or dun young birds, and not, as might be expected, a mixture of these colours, or a bird intermediate in colour between the two.
Carriers are very fair sitters and nurses, but they are subject to diseases of the eyes, and are not as well suited to young fanciers as some of the other breeds.
THE DRAGON.
For grace, style, and beauty there are no pigeons superior to Dragons. They are almost everything a young fancier could desire—good homing birds, able to do 50 or 100 miles with ease; active on the wing, close sitters, good nurses, fertile breeders, requiring no special care; full-sized birds, good in a pie, and not expensive in first cost. Their general form is somewhat like that of the carrier, but they are much more active, and far quicker in flight. Some of the best dragons are blue; others are white, red, yellow, and black. They differ from the carrier in the size of the eye and beak-wattle, and in the beak.
THE TUMBLER.
The Tumblers are the very opposite of the breeds last described. Small birds, with rounded heads, short beaks, and pretty little red prancing feet, they are the very pets of the pigeon fancy. In colour the tumblers vary very much. There are blues, blacks, and other self colours; then some have white heads—these are termed bald heads; others have a white mark below the under bill—so they are termed beards; but the variety most valued is that termed the almond tumbler. In this breed every feather of the plumage is variegated with black, yellow, and white, the yellow forming the ground colour. These almond birds are reared by experienced fanciers with beaks so short that they are hardly able to bring up their own young, and others have to be employed for the purpose. Birds of this extreme character are not suited to young fanciers; but the ordinary flying tumblers, which can be bought at any dealer’s for a few shillings per pair, are most pleasant pets—good breeders, active and joyous on the wing, constantly turning somersaults in the air, good in a pie, and able to fly home, if trained, some thirty or forty miles with ease.
THE BARB.
The Barb, or, as it used formerly to be called, the Barbary pigeon, from the country from where it was originally obtained, is regarded with great esteem by fanciers, and very good specimens cannot be obtained except at high prices. In size the barb is rather a small bird. The colours are usually black, dun, red, yellow, or white; blue barbs, strange to say, are not known. The eye of the barb is surrounded by a naked skin or wattle of a red colour; this should be circular in form, and the larger it is the more the bird is valued: the skull should be broad, and the beak short and stout. Barbs are good sitters, and bring up their young ones very well. They are also striking in appearance, the red eye-wattle contrasting well with the colours of the plumage.
THE OWL.
Like the barbs, the best Owl pigeons also come from the north of Africa. Formerly there was very common in this country an elegant, short-beaked bird of a beautiful blue or silvery colour, known as the owl: this was of medium size, and possessed rapid powers of flight. Beautiful as the breed was, it has almost entirely been superseded at the pigeon shows by a very petite, delicate, white breed, the first specimens of which were brought to this country from Tunis about a dozen years since. A very good specimen of this charming little variety is represented in our [engraving]. Since that true blue and black owls of the small size have also been introduced. The great drawback to this fairy-like little breed is its delicacy. The young fancier would do well to choose for his first favourites a hardier variety.
THE TURBIT.
The Turbit is a pigeon somewhat resembling the owl, but its head is flatter, and it has a turned crown of feathers at the back of the neck. In colour it is peculiar. The wings, with the exception of the larger flight-feathers, are coloured, and the remainder of the body should be white. There are turbits of all varieties of colour, or, as they are termed, blue, black, red, yellow, and silver turbits.
THE FANTAIL.
There are a number of pigeons which are strikingly distinguished by remarkable peculiarities in the form of the plumage; such are the Fantail, the Trumpeter, and the Jacobin. The fantail is perhaps the best known of these. The number of feathers in the tail of an ordinary pigeon is fourteen, but in this breed it is greatly increased; in some specimens even to three times that number, and thirty feathers are not uncommon in good birds.
The carriage of the tail is also greatly changed; instead of being borne behind, like that of an ordinary pigeon, it is held aloft, like the expanded tail of a peacock.
The [engraving] represents one of the best white fantails, the tail full, carried well over the back, and the long swan-like neck thrown back so as to touch the tail. Fantails are good hardy birds, and as they can be bought at all prices, very well suit the young fancier. Moreover, they soon become very tame, and may be reared almost everywhere.
THE TRUMPETER.
The Trumpeter is not as common a variety as the fan-tail, but is fully as remarkable. It derives its name from its peculiar voice, which is quite unlike the ordinary coo, coo, of a common pigeon; and it is also distinguished by the singular arrangement of the feathers on its head and feet: the latter are feathered to so great an extent that the bird appears to have four wings. Many of the larger quills on the feet of a good trumpeter will exceed four inches in length if unbroken. Trumpeters have a tuft over the beak and a turn of feathers at the back of the head. They require to be kept most scrupulously clean; otherwise the elegant appendages on the feet become clogged with dirt, and the birds lose all their attractiveness and beauty.
THE JACOBIN.
No variety of pigeon excels the little Jacobin in its quaint prettiness. The tiny little head is half concealed in a recurved cowl of feathers which runs down at the sides of the neck, and nearly meets in front.
The head, the flight feathers of the jacobin, and those of the tail, should be purely white, those of the rest of the plumage coloured. The most common colours are red or yellow; but there are also black jacks, as they are sometimes called for shortness, and also blues, and some that are entirely white. Jacks breed very freely, and we cannot recommend a prettier pigeon, or one better adapted to the juvenile fancier.
The foregoing breeds include all the best known varieties. It is true there are many others described in the works on pigeons, but none better fitted for the young and inexperienced fancier.
The breed known as Runts are characterised by their enormous size, sometimes weighing even as much as four pounds or even four and a half pounds a pair. But they do not fly well, and are more suited for pigeon pies than for a fancier’s loft.
There are also the breeds known as Nuns, Spots, and Helmets, which are white with more or less colour on the head, &c.; but for beauty of marking none surpass those blue breeds that possess the arrangement of colours in the plumage that characterises the original wild rock dove.