42 FANCY PIGEONS. 



to an experienced fancier ; but, at tlie same time, where many 

 young ones are bred, there will usually be one or two whose 

 sex will puzzle the most experienced for a long time. 



Odd Birds. 



Odd birds in a loft, be they cocks or hens, are always 

 very troublesome. Such should always be removed to a place 

 by themselves, or common mates procured for them, when 

 they may be used as feeders. 



Overcrowding. 



Pigeons are so productive that they often increase faster 

 than accommodation can be provided ; but nothing militates 

 more against success in rearing young ones than overcrowded 

 lofts, which are a fertile cause of disease, and when such 

 does set in, the best seem to die first; at least, they are 

 more missed than the worst, which is about the tnith of it. 

 When every result of an overcrowded loft is considered, such 

 as extra expense for food, extra trouble in attendance, and 

 the introduction of disease, it would be found to pay far 

 better to use an unsparing hand in killing off faulty young 

 ones, which seldom pay anything like their cost. 



Separating Sexes. 



Many fanciers separate the cocks from the hens during the 

 winter season, and where there is every convenience for doing 

 so it may be a good plan. When all nesting places are laid 

 bare of their furnishings, there is but little inducement for 

 the birds to breed during the short days of winter. It is 

 at least unnatural for the sexes to lose the companionship 

 of each other during several months of the year, and they 

 have always seemed to me to thrive much better when left 

 together. When all facilities for breeding are removed, as the 

 birds begin to get deep in moult, and not replaced till the 

 the beginning of spring, there will be no trouble experienced 



