PIGEOXS AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 57 



An old rule which is generally correct, is to hold the bird, 

 the sex of which is to be tested, loosely in the hand. Then 

 suddenly tilt it forward. If it throws down its tail to balance 

 it is a cock. If it throws it up, it is a hen. Where I am at 

 all uncertain, I generally use the solitary plan, that is, I shut 

 the bird in a training coop, where it can neither see nor hear 

 another bird. After a day or two, I put a bird of the sup- 

 posed opposite sex, in the next pen and the first bird will 

 generally show its sex at once. 



Often two cocks will mate, aud they often do this in spring 

 when they have been kept away from the hens all winter. In 

 such cases, I at once take away the cock that has gone to the 

 other ones nest, for I have found that they often become so 

 attached to each other, as to intefere with taking up with 

 their own hens when the latter are turned into the loft. On 

 the same principal, two hens will mate in the winter loft, aud 

 it is not an unusual thing for them to make a nest, lay two 

 eggs each and try to hatch them. 



When a fancier selects two birds, and builds his hopes on 

 a speedy mating and subsequent nesting, he often runs 

 against two very perverse pigeon natures. Sometimes they 

 fight at first, through the bars that separate them. Some- 

 times neither will pay any attention to the other and some- 

 times one will resist each and every advance of the other. In 

 such cases, solitary confinement is the great method. Take 

 the birds as far away from the breeding loft as possible ; shut 

 them up. say one in an out house, and the other in a box in 

 the cellar, if the latter is dry. The point is to get them 

 where they cannot see or hear a pigeon of any kind. As I 

 once said, I have taken two perverse birds of this kind and 

 have given them such a dose, that either one would try to 

 mate with its own reflection in a looking glass. 



The old style mating coop is a double coop with a slide in 

 the centre. The birds are separated till the supposed proper 



