Pigeon house

“ The practice of pigeon-keeping has survived to the present day, the houses of wealthy men being furnished with separate pigeon-houses, built up of a number of earthen jars, and roofed over. Each jar is the habitation of a pair of pigeons, and the whole principle of this dove-cote is exactly the same as that which was employed by the late Mr. Waterton in erecting the starling-houses in his garden and grounds. Poorer people, who cannot afford to build a separate house for the pigeons, set up jars for them in their own houses, the pigeons gaining access to their nests through the door. ”

“ This is indispensable, as, without it, there will be no security, but the constant prospect of confusion, breaking of eggs, and the destruction of young. The proper place for the pigeon-house is the poultry-yard; but it does very well near dwellings, stables, brewhouses, bakehouses, or such offices. Some persons keep pigeons in rooms, and have them making their nests on the floor. The object is to escape the danger of the young falling out ”

“ The interior of the pigeon-house must have cells for nests, which are made by putting up shelves twenty inches wide and one foot apart, and dividing the spaces between them by upright partitions, three feet from each other. Across the back of each nest there should be a board three inches wide, sliding up and down in a groove, to prevent the young ones from falling out, and yet to allow of the nest being cleaned. When the house has been stocked with pigeons, a little hay or soft straw is put into each cell for the pigeon to form its nest. ”

“ The Talmudical writers have even their regulations respecting the keeping of tame pigeons. No one was allowed to do so who had not a sufficiency of ground around his house to supply food for them. According to their regulations, the pigeon-house must not be within fifty paces of cultivated ground belonging to any one except the owner of the pigeons. The reason for this prohibition was, that as the pigeon was known to be an exceedingly voracious bird, it should not feed at the expense of a neighbour. ”

“ Water should be led into the pigeon house, both for them to drink and to bathe in, for pigeons are very clean birds. For this reason the keeper of the pigeons should sweep out the house several times a month, for that which soils it has so great a. value in agriculture that some writers even claim that it is the best of all manures. Furthermore, the keeper in these rounds may tend any pigeon which is ailing, remove any which are dead, and take out such squabs as are fit for market. ”

“ Almost every one who starts keeping domestic pets either soon tires of the sport or becomes a fancier. The care of common pigeons is a very simple matter. The principal thing is a good loft or cote for them in the top of a barn or house. They will practically take care of themselves and after a few years greatly increase in numbers.
A model pigeon house for breeding fancy pigeons requires separate mating boxes, nests and other appliances. It would be impossible to make much of a success with fancy pigeons if they are allowed their liberty to fly about and mate at will. ”

“ In the middle of the square around which the Herald building is built in New York city is a carrier-pigeon house on a level with the roof. It is a square house, large enough for a good-sized play-house, and has a piazza, a porch fenced in with wire, where the birds can exercise until they have learned enough to be allowed to fly around the city, for pigeons require a great deal of exercise not only in flying, but in walking. Just notice the next time you see a flock of pigeons when they light on the ground, or on the roofs of buildings, how they walk up and down for a long time. ”

“ Nothing could be prettier. The stables are white, with green shutters, and creeping plants are everywhere. In the centre of the yard a bed of shrubs has been laid out, in the midst of which stands a quaint-looking, old-fashioned pigeon-house, surmounted by a weathercock and a jockey on horseback. The house—where the trainer lives—looks on to the yard, and is covered with ivy. The whole scene is a picture, and more so now, for the gravel path has been strewn with straw, and the lads are riding round in a circle, as a little preliminary to going on to the Heath. ”

“ The furnishings of the pigeon loft are different from those of the poultry house, and of course the fly is always completely inclosed. Upper floors or lofts of buildings are used for pigeons to much better advantage than for poultry, but where there is room it is more satisfactory to have all quarters for pigeons on the ground floor.
As the young pigeons remain in the nest and are fed by the parents until they are almost full-grown, each pair of old pigeons must have their own nesting place. ”

“ With hay and grain from the fields he had tilled:
The barn near which stood the pigeon-house high
(Where never a prowling cat could pry)
Where lived the pigeon with soft gray breast
Who patiently sat on the loose straw nest,
[Pg 54] The nest where the pretty white eggs were found,
Her own little eggs so smooth and round
That held the wonderful secret.
This is the bin full of corn so good
(The little gray pigeon's favorite food) . ”

“ Chickens,
coming originally from tropical woods, will thrive better where their delicate combs and toes are not liable to be frost-bitten, and one is more certain not to lose his fantails, [55] pouters, ruff-necks, tumblers, and homing pigeons, if he has a suitable loft in which to confine his pets. These considerations lead to the designing of a combined pigeon-house and bantam-coop suitable for the limited space of the diminutive city back-yards, or even appropriate for the roof of a rear extension, where there is no back-yard to the dwelling.
Fig. 31.—Frame of Bantam-Coop and Pigeon-Loft. ”

“ How curiously quick is the instinct of birds in finding out their food. Where peas or other favourite grain is sown, wood pigeons and tame pigeons immediately congregate. It is not easy to ascertain from whence the former come, but the house pigeons have often been known to arrive in numbers on a new sown field the very morning after the grain is laid down, although no pigeon-house, from which they could come, exists within several miles of the place. ”

“ If cleanliness be neglected the pigeons, both young and old, will speedily be covered with filth and vermin. The pigeon-house should be cleaned once a week at least—more frequently if possible—and the floor covered with sifted gravel or gritty sand, which aids the digestion of the birds ”

“ Pigeon owners also train their birds to circle about the neighborhood and 29 bring back strangers. These strangers are taken inside, fed, and accustomed to the place before they are released again. On Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings the pigeons are to be seen flying around the neighborhood, while behind the chimneys of every fourth or fifth tenement house are crouched one or two small boys armed with long sticks, occasionally giving a low peculiar whistle to attract the pigeons coming from distant roofs. ”

“ There are in the United States about 5,000 men who pursue pigeons year after year as a business. Pigeon hunters with whom we conversed incognito stated that of this number there were between 400 and 500 at the Petoskey nesting plying their vocation with as many nests, and more arriving upon every train from all parts of the United States. When it is remembered that the village was alive with pigeoners, that nearly every house in the vast area of territory covered by the nesting sheltered one to six pigeon men, and that many camped out in the woods, the figures will not seem improbable. ”

“ The “passenger” is less in size than the house pigeon. In the air it looks not unlike the kite, wanting the forked or “swallow” tail. That of the pigeon is cuneiform. Its colour is best described by calling it a nearly uniform slate. In the male the colours are deeper, and the neck-feathers present the same changeable hues of green, gold, and purple-crimson, generally observed in birds of this species. It is only in the woods, and when freshly caught or killed, that these brilliant tints can be seen to perfection. They fade in captivity, and immediately after the bird has been shot. ”

“ Constant water supply for pigeons
To keep the loft looking clean and neat the droppings should be removed from the floor, and from all shelves that can be cleaned without disturbing breeding birds, at least once a week. Many pigeon keepers clean the houses oftener than that, but if the ventilation is good and the droppings are dry and firm, a house may go uncleaned for weeks or months without detriment to the birds. It is customary to keep the floor of the pigeon loft thinly covered with fine gravel, coarse sand, sawdust, or chaff. ”

“ But the boxes their nests were made in, up in the pigeon loft just over our heads, broke loose and spilled out all the young squabs and no one knows it but me and the mother pigeons. Haven’t you observed how excited the old pigeons are and how they keep flying in and out of the loft looking for their babies? My, but there will be a terrible commotion at the house when they discover that the squabs are gone. So come ahead and follow me. We must hurry and eat our fill before the people at the house discover their loss. ”

“ Up above the sidewalks, on the roofs of the tenements, there is some flying of small kites, but pigeon flying is the chief sport. It provides an occupation less immediately remunerative, perhaps, than games of chance, but developed by the same unmoral tendencies which seem to turn all play in the district into vice. Some boys, through methods of accretion peculiar to this neighborhood, have a score or more of pigeons which are kept in the house, and taken up to the roof regularly every Sunday, and oftener during the summer, for exercise. ”

“ The young pair were, with much care and watching, successfully raised, and from these the flock has increased to its present number, six males and nine females. The inclosure, which is not large, is built behind and adjoining the house, situated on a high bluff overlooking Milwaukee River. It is built of wire netting and inclosed on the top and two sides with glass. There is but slight protection from the cold, and the pigeons thrive in zero weather as well as in summer. ”

“ A kind lady in the next house tied suet and strings of peanuts to one of her trees. During winter and spring the woodpeckers enjoyed the treat, while we enjoyed the woodpeckers! Pigeons and bluejays came too, and, yes, English sparrows, those birds that are nowhere welcome. But they didn’t have it all their own way there, as they do where nothing is done to attract other birds.
One winter day a beautiful blue and white pigeon with rose-colored neck came in at an open window. The streets were covered with snow. It was hard for birds to find anything to eat. ”

“ A brick should always be placed in contiguity to the pan, to enable the cock and hen to alight with greater safety upon the eggs.
The pigeon-trap on the house-top is the well-known contrivance of those London rascals, who lie in wait, as has been said, to entrap the property of others. A trap of another description, and for a very different purpose, is sometimes used; it is an area, on the outside of a building, for the purpose of confining in the air valuable breeds of pigeons which cannot be trusted to flight. ”

“ But though there are so many varieties of beautifully colored and formed birds, the ordinary Dove-house pigeon is by far the most satisfactory to raise, and repays its owner far better both in young and domestic habits than do those which are not only rare, but difficult to rear. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To make our life more tolerable, deprived as we were of all communication with the outer world and of family affection, we were allowed to keep pigeons and to have gardens. Our two or three hundred pigeon-houses, with a thousand birds nesting all round the outer wall, and above thirty garden plots, were a sight even stranger than our meals. ”

“ Seats should be placed here, under the great columns or by the grass, so that one might enjoy the sunshine after books and watch the pigeons. They have no fear of the people, they come to my feet, but the noise of a door heavily swinging-to in the great building alarms them; they rise and float round, and return again. The sunlight casts a shadow of the pigeon's head and neck upon his shoulder; he turns his head, and the shadow of his beak falls on his breast. Iridescent gleams of bronze and green and blue play about his neck; blue predominates. ”

“ Bird-lovers are not apt to be annoyed by them, but non-bird-lovers often complain, and justly complain, of unwished-for birds that come and make untidy nests and disfigure their buildings. Every city should maintain pigeon-lofts. There should be, in a few exposed places, rooms where they can go in and lay eggs in boxes prepared for them. ”

“ People in some numbers watch this vile massacre from the terrace, but their concern—almost to a man—is with the pigeon. If the pigeon escapes unharmed, as occasionally happens, there is a gasp of relief and gratification. The bird so saved generally alights on the Casino roof and, in course of time, no doubt joins the fearless crowd of pigeons who haunt the roadway and strut among the out-of-door tables of the Café de Paris. There is a curious bond uniting this community of birds, the common tie of having been condemned to death and of having been by accident reprieved. ”