Stool pigeon

“ Sometimes two carloads were shipped south on the railroad each day. Nevertheless he believed that not one bird in a thousand was taken. Hawks and owls often abound near the nesting. Owls can be heard hooting there all night long. The cooper's hawk often catches the stool-pigeon. During the Petoskey season Mr. Stevens lost twelve stool birds in this way.
"There has been much dispute among writers and observers, beginning with Audubon and Wilson, and extending down to the present day, as to whether the wild pigeon has two eggs or one. ”

“ A stool pigeon is a person who associates with thieves, in order to betray their secrets to the police officers, in reference to any robbery which has been committed, or which may be in contemplation. ”

“ Feces from birds with diarrhea should be removed from the loft as soon as noticed.
(d) Frequent disinfection of the loft with a strong disinfectant like 4 percent saponified cresol will help keep down contamination.
c. Trichomoniasis. This is a very common disease of pigeons commonly seen in the mouth, esophagus, or crop in the form of cheesy yellow or white lesions. For this reason it is often called “canker” by pigeon fanciers. The cause is a motile one-celled organism. Only the common type of this organism will be considered here. This disease has many carriers. ”

“ The carnivorous birds often reject by vomiting the indigestible debris such as feathers and bones, after all the more soluble parts have been disposed of in the stomach. The pigeon even feeds its young by disgorging into their open bills, the semi-digested food and milk from its crop. Following these indications we must break up the contents of the crop by manipulation and force them in small masses upward into the bill and downward to the proventriculus. The rejection by the bill may be further stimulated by introducing the 96finger into the fauces to rouse the reflex active emesis. ”

“ Health of the pigeon is dependent on proper care. Overcrowding of birds should be avoided at all times. Good loft sanitation and ventilation, together with proper diet and uncontaminated drinking water, are factors in health that are under the control of the pigeoneer. He is therefore largely responsible for the over-all health of pigeons in his loft. ”

“ If we allow either of the parents to feed the young, its crop, when examined, will be discovered to contain the same curdled substance, which passes thence into the stomach, where it is to be digested. The young pigeon is fed for some time with this substance only, and about the third day some of the common food is found mingled with it; and as the pigeon grows older, the proportion of common food is increased, so that by the time it is seven, eight, or nine days old, the secretion of the curd ceases in the old ones, and of course will no more be found in the crop of the young. ”

“ The pigeon softens grain in its crop, and turns it into a kind of milk food which it disgorges for its nestlings. It would seem that the beetle shows the same tender care. It half digests the choice food, and disgorges it in the shape of a delicate film to line the walls of the cavity where the egg is laid. Thus, when first hatched, the larva finds food easy of digestion, which rapidly strengthens its stomach and allows it to attack the under layers which lack the same refinement of preparation. ”

“ And from this feed is supplied to both the male and female bird what is known as pigeon's milk, forming inside of the crop a sort of curd, on which the young pigeon is fed by both father and mother, who supply this food. The young bird is gorged with this food, and in a few days becomes as heavy as the parent bird. ”

“ Its diet is made up of peas, beans, corn, oats, barley and potato, with hemp seed for a special delicacy, while it picks up many other bits of food in its daily flights.
It is wonderful how many kinds of tame pigeons have come from their wild ancestor, the rock-pigeon. Of no other animal except the dog are there so many and it is hard to believe that they all came from one source. ”

“ In the first place, they are themselves fed with honey by the workers, who swallow it and bring it up from their stomachs in the way in which a pigeon brings up food for its young—a process which is called “regurgitation.” ”

“ When the birds are sitting during cold weather, the egg is tucked up under the feathers, as though to support the egg in its position. At such times the pigeon rests on the side of the folded wing, instead of squatting on the nest. During the first few days, after the young is hatched, to guard against the cold, it is, like the egg, concealed under the feathers of the abdomen, the head always pointing forward. In this attitude, the parents, without changing the sitting position or reclining on the side, feed the squab by arching the head and neck down, and administering the food. ”

“ Another reason for scattering feed in small quantities is to prevent the pigeons from picking out the kinds of grain they particularly like and leaving those which contain food elements they need for proper development. Pigeons always drink immediately after feeding. When the first pigeon stops eating and takes a drink, it is a sign that the pigeons have had enough food so do not scatter any more grain. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Pigeons should not refuse food unless they have just been fed. They will be alert, active, happy, and much more manageable if kept a little hungry. It is easy to overfeed pigeons so that they become sluggish and listless. Many good pigeons have been spoiled by overfeeding. The pigeoneer should hand-feed the birds and watch them closely while they are eating because their appetite reflects their general health and condition. Sick birds may be discovered by their failure to eat. ”

“ The last three pigeons I shot, I shot in the fall of 1884. I was then nineteen years of age, and have a distinct recollection of what they were like. These birds were all three diseased, and were not over two-thirds the actual size of the healthy passenger pigeon. I took them home, but mother said they were not fit for food.
In northern Canada the snowshoe hare, or native rabbit, becomes so numerous about every seven or eight years that a disease sets in and fully ninety-nine out of a hundred—yes, I might say nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand—of them die off. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Wait until the pigeons have eaten nearly all the feed before distributing another handful. The feed should be well scattered so that individual birds do not get all of the choice grains. No harm is done if the pigeons eat some of the sand, providing it is clean, as sand supplements grit as an aid to digestion. There are several reasons why pigeons should be fed only a handful at a time. If the whole amount of grain for one feeding is thrown on the floor at once, the actual amount needed cannot be estimated exactly. If the amount estimated was too little, the pigeons are underfed ”

“ The hawk will vanish at the very sight of it, or the instant it hears its voice. Pigeons have a special regard for this bird; and, it is said, if one of these birds is buried at each of the four corners of the pigeon-house in pots that have been newly glazed, the pigeons will not change their abode—a result which has been obtained by some keepers of pigeons, by cutting a joint of their wings with an instrument of gold; for if any other were used, the wounds would be attended with danger.—The pigeon in general may be looked upon as a bird fond of change ”

“ Before alighting, the wild pigeon, like the Carolina parrot and a few other species of birds, breaks the force of its flight by repeated flappings, as if apprehensive of receiving injury from coming too suddenly into contact with the branch or the spot of ground on which it intends to settle. ”

“ Even the roofs of the houses bristle with pigeon-lofts and artful-looking structures for the capture of wandering birds. Should a stray pigeon alight on one of these contrivances, attracted by the hemp seed which is profusely scattered thereon, or by the presence of a decoy securely fastened by the leg, a sudden click may be heard, and the bird finds himself in an instant imprisoned in an artful arrangement of wire walls, which has closed on him with the rapidity of a conjuring trick. ”

“ The best nest boxes for pigeons are rough earthenware pans, eight inches across, which may be bought cheaply at a bird store. The floor of the cote should be covered with sawdust or gravel to the depth of half an inch. Pigeons that are confined should be fed regularly on a mixture of small grains and cracked corn. They should also be given cracked oyster shells, grit and charcoal occasionally. A pigeon loft should be rat proof and clean. ”

“ The young pigeon, like the young quadruped, till it is capable of digesting the common food of its kind, is fed with a substance secreted for that purpose by the parent animal; not, as in the mammalia, by the female alone, but also by the male, which perhaps furnishes this nutriment in a degree still more abundant. ”

“ 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 ”

“ We have kept pets of all our native species of owls, and most interesting pets they make, and though, when angry or in any way out of sorts, it will utter a ready hiss, ending in a curious rasping guttural, we have never known it to hoot except in the darkness of night, and, more rarely, in the dim, uncertain light of evening or morning twilight. The cooing of a pigeon at midnight, while it may be said to be unusual, is yet a thing that, under certain circumstances, may be heard at any time. ”

“ Thus, pigeons have been killed in the neighborhood of New York, with their crops full of rice, which they must have collected in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, these districts being the nearest in which they could possibly have procured a supply of that kind of food. As their power of digestion is so great that they will decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must in this case have traveled between three hundred and four hundred miles in six hours, which [27] shows their power of speed to be at an average about one mile in a minute. ”

“ This secretion in the pigeon, like all other animal substances, becomes putrid by standing, though not so readily as either blood or meat, it resisting putrefaction for a considerable time; neither will curd much pressed become so putrid as soon as either blood or meat.”
Selby says,107 “The young remain in the nest till they are able to fly, and are fed by the parent birds, who disgorge into their mouths the food that has undergone a maceration, or semi-digestive process, in that part of the œsophagus usually called the crop or craw.” ”

“ Between 5 and 10 percent of the food fed a pigeon should be grit. Normally 5 percent is sufficient, except during the breeding season when as much as 10 percent may be fed since the parent pigeons pump grit into the youngsters when they start eating grains. ”

“ About twice a week, a bath is greatly relished by the birds; but care should be taken not to leave the floor of the loft damp. Old lime and gravel should be sprinkled about. The food of the homing pigeon is not different from that of any other pigeon, and consists chiefly of beans, small gray peas, with now and then, by way of change, a little wheat, tares, rice or Indian corn. ”

“ The young Pigeon puts his beak into that of his parents, who, with convulsive efforts, force down his gullet first a casein mash secreted in the crop and later a broth of grains softened by being partly digested. He is fed upon disgorged foods, which are kind to the frailty and inexperience of a young stomach. ”

“ I asked, “is it bewitched? Its capacity for food seems endless.”
I never had fed a pigeon for so long a time, but Minnie Post-office, as we named her, did not seem able to get a morsel to stay in her bill.
If I did not feed her she would peck at seeds, but they rolled right out of her mouth. For several weeks my brother-in-law assisted me in feeding her, as I had a number of other birds that no one but myself could care for. Three times a day her dish of water, her box of pills, and her feeding bib were brought out. ”

“ Experiments have shown that "the starving pigeon daily consumes in the average 40 times more muscular substance that the marmot in the state of torpor, and only 11 times more fat, 33 times more of the tissue of the alimentary canal, 18.3 times more liver, 15 times more lung, 5 times more skin." ”

“ Never feed pigeons a full ration of feed at any one time during the settling period. Keep them definitely on the hungry side at all times. This serves to impress upon them that the loft is the place to find food. Hand-feeding will control the distribution of feed and, at the same time, encourage the birds to become tame. Pigeoneers are urged to hand-feed their birds at all times if possible. ”