OUR PIGEONS.
After we had been a few months in the country, a friend, who was a
great pigeon-fancier, wished to add some new varieties to his cote,
and offered to send us, as a present, seven or eight pairs of those he
wished to part with. We were greatly pleased with his offer, and at
once set the carpenter at work to prepare a house for them. As soon as
it was ready we received sixteen beautiful pigeons.
For the first fortnight the pigeon-holes were covered with net, that
the birds might be enabled to survey at a distance their new abode,
and become accustomed to the sight of the persons about the yard. When
the net was removed, they eagerly availed themselves of their freedom
to take flights round and round the house. One couple, of less
contented disposition than the others, never came back, nor did we
ever hear that they had returned to their old home. Our number was
not, however, lessened by their desertion, for we received, at nearly
the same time, from another friend, a pair of beautiful "pouters."
As we resolved to keep a debtor-and-creditor account of all the things
we kept, we found that our eighteen pigeons consumed in every seven
weeks.
Two pecks of peas . . . . . . . . . . . $0 75
One peck of tares . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ditto maize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
$1 45
In the first fourteen weeks we kept them, we received but two pairs of
young ones, which were most mercilessly slaughtered for a pie. The
price of these in the market would have been 37 cents per pair, so
that we were losers on our stock; but we must say that we did not
receive them till nearly the end of September, and we were agreeably
surprised at finding we had young ones fit the table at Christmas.
From that time we have been well recompensed for our peas, tares, and
maize, as each couple produces on an average a pair every six weeks;
thus the produce was worth $3 00, while the cost was something less
than $1 50. Even had there been no profit derived, we should still
have kept them, as we consider no place in the country complete
without these beautiful and graceful little creatures. It was a
subject of never-failing delight to the children, watching them as
they wheeled round and round the house of an evening, and it was
always considered a great privilege to be allowed to feed them.
At first the food was kept in the stable, and Tom was the feeder; but
we were soon obliged to alter this, as we never went into the yard
without treading on the corn. It was afterwards removed to the back
kitchen, round the door of which they used to assemble in a flock,
till one of the servants threw them out their allowance. They were
considered "pets," by all the household, and were so tame that they
would allow themselves to be taken in the hand and stroked.
As for the young ones, who were doomed to the _steak_, we never saw
them till they made their appearance in the pie. They were taken from
the nest as soon as they were fledged.
I mention this, because we were sometimes accused by our visitors (for
whose especial benefit the young ones were sometimes slain) of
cruelty, in eating the "pretty creatures;" but we never found that
they had any scruples in partaking of them at dinner. It was usually
as they were watching of a summer evening the flight of the parent
birds that we were taxed with our barbarity.
We were one day much amused by a clergyman of our acquaintance, who
kept a great number of these birds in a room, and who, in default of
children to pet, made pets of his pigeons. At dinner, a pigeon-pie
made part of the repast. This was placed opposite a visitor, who was
requested to carve the dainty. He did so, and sent a portion of it to
his host. The reverend gentleman looked at the plateful sent him
attentively, and then said with a sigh, "I will trouble you to
exchange this for part of the other bird. _This_ was a peculiar
favorite, and I always fed it myself. I put a mark on the breast after
it was picked, for I could not bear to eat the little darling!"
We always thought that this sentimental divine had better either not
have had the "little darling" put into the pie, or have swallowed his
feelings and his favorite at the same time.
This dish seems to occasion wit as well as sentiment, for we were once
asked by a facetious friend, "Why is a pigeon in a pie like
Shakspeare's Richard III?" We "gave it up," and were told, "Because it
was bound unto the steak (stake), and could not fly." This may perhaps
be a worn-out jest, but it was fresh to the writer, and so perhaps it
may be to some of her readers.
We will say a few words on the management of pigeons before we
conclude this chapter.
It is necessary that a pan of water should be place in their house
each day for them to wash in, and that a large lump of bay-salt should
likewise be kept there. It should be occasionally cleaned out, and
this is all the trouble attending keeping them. Feed them three times
a day; and never throw more down than they pick up at a meal.
As I have said nothing of the profit derived from chickens when they
are _reared_ by the owner, so I now say nothing of the saving in
keeping pigeons, when we came to sow a large patch of Indian corn, as
well as some tares. We did so successfully in the acre of ground
called the Orchard; and though we had abundance of fine fruit from it,
the trees were not planted so thickly as to prevent any kind of crop
from flourishing. But we repeat, this little book is a manual for the
use of the beginner; and to such we hope it may prove both useful and
encouraging.