Pigeon culture does not afford as many or as good opportunities for profit as poultry culture does, but it is suited to conditions under which poultry do not thrive. A flock of pigeons may be permanently maintained by a city resident who has so little room for domestic birds that, if he kept poultry, he would have to renew his flock every year. A few pigeons may be kept by any one who can provide a nesting place for them where they will be safe from cats and rats. In this country the growing of squabs has been widely exploited in recent years as a profitable commercial industry. Near large cities where the demand for squabs is good, squab growing on a large scale is sometimes successful. Elsewhere the small flock that can be cared for in the owner's spare time is likely to be more profitable. The breeding of fancy pigeons is also almost wholly a spare-time occupation. The demand for fancy pigeons is small in comparison with the demand for fancy poultry, and a pigeon fancier's trade rarely grows so large that he can give his attention to it exclusively. In Europe the breeding of pigeons for exhibition and sport is more popular than in America, but the interest is growing rapidly in this country. CHAPTER XVIII MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS [Illustration: Fig. 206. Small pigeon house and fly[23]] [23] The photographs for illustrations in this chapter, when not credited to others, are from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts. Almost every child knows something of the lives of the common pigeons that are seen at large in both city and country. Some flocks have owners who take a slight interest in them and make rude provisions for their safety and comfort. Nearly all the country flocks, and many of the city flocks, are in this class. But there are in all large cities, and in some smaller places, many flocks of pigeons which no one claims to own. They build their nests in high cupolas, in the belfries of churches, on sheltered ledges under the cornices or other projections of high buildings, and in all sorts of places from which they cannot be easily dislodged. The streets and areas of a great city afford daily food sufficient for vast numbers of birds. The principal part of this is fresh oats scattered by thousands of horses as they take their noon meal from pails or nose bags, and oats that, passing through the horses undigested, are mixed with the dust and dirt of the street. Very large quantities of food also fall on the streets from torn bags or broken boxes as cereal products are carted from place to place and handled in transportation. Then there are the crumbs and remnants of food thrown from windows by innumerable people who carry their lunches when they go to their work; and besides these a great deal of waste food from the occupants of tenements, as well as from many hotel and restaurant kitchens. Much of this is thrown out at random, but often, when pigeons begin to frequent places where food supplies are regular, the people