power of inflating his crop until it puffs out in front as
large as a baseball. Jacobins or as they are commonly called,
"ruffle-necks," have an immense ruffle of feathers like a feather boa.
Dragoons have a huge wart on the bill as large as an almond. The
tumblers are so named from their habit of turning backward
somersaults during flight.

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.

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.

It is very doubtful whether there is any money in raising pigeons or
squabs for market. Fanciers never sell their output for market
purposes unless it is to get rid of surplus or undesirable stock. A
breeder who is successful in winning prizes with birds of his "strain"
as it is called will find a ready market with other breeders for all
the birds he cares to sell. Prize winning birds sometimes bring a
hundred dollars a pair. It is by no means easy to breed prizewinners
and the chances are that the beginner will be a buyer of stock rather
than a seller.

Homing pigeons or as they are commonly called, carriers, are not bred
for special markings like fancy pigeons but because of their power and
speed in flight. A carrier has the "homing" instinct more fully
developed than any other animal. In some homing pigeon races, the
birds have made speed records of over a mile a minute for many hours
and have flown over a thousand miles. If a well-bred homing pigeon
fails to return to his home loft it is almost a certainty that he is
either forcibly detained or that he has been killed by