“A pigeon house is made like a great dome, with arched roof, a narrow entrance, and grilled windows or with wider lattices on all sides so that the interior may be well lighted and yet no snake or other such pest may have access.  The walls and the dome within and the edges of the windows without should be smeared with light stucco to keep out rats and lizards, for nothing is so timid as a pigeon.  A round nest should be provided for each pair of pigeons and these should be arranged in close order so that there may be established as many as possible of them ranked from the ground to the very dome.  Each nest should have a door no bigger than necessary to enable the pigeons to go in and out but within should be of three palms in diameter.  Under each rank of nests should be fastened planks two palms broad for the use of the pigeons as a vestibule on coming out.  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.  Likewise, those which are setting should be transferred to a particular place, separated from the others by a net but from which the mothers may be free to get out of doors:  which is done for two reasons:  first, because if they become weary or decrepit from being cooped too long, they will be refreshed by the free air when they go abroad:  secondly, because they serve as decoys for other pigeons, for their squabs will always bring them home themselves unless they are struck down by a crow or cut off by a hawk.  Pigeon breeders rid themselves of the last mentioned pests by planting in the ground two rods smeared with birdlime and bent in one upon the other, and then tie on some bait so disposed that when the hawk falls upon his prey he finds himself entangled in the birdlime and is taken.

“It may be noted that the pigeon has a homing instinct, as is proved by the practice of many in letting pigeons loose from their bosoms in the theatre expecting them to return home, for if they did not return the practice would not persist.

“The food for pigeons is placed in mangers fastened around the walls and filled from the outside by means of conduits.  They thrive on millet, wheat, barley, peas, beans and vetch.  This regimen should be followed also, as far as possible, in the care of the wild pigeons, which live on the towers and the roofs of the barn.