70 PIGEON RAISING 



day; for when there are eggs or young squabs, 

 the male goes on the nest about ten in the morn- 

 ing and remains until four in the afternoon, 

 when the female goes on and remains until re- 

 lieved by the male the following morning at 

 ten. 



These habits are sure and regular as clock 

 work, and I have never known pigeon experts 

 use any other means of securing a mated pair. 

 This fact will sometimes cause pigeon raisers 

 to make blunders as in the following incident: 



One morning there was great commotion in 

 the market pen. A pigeon was wildly flying 

 about from nest to nest pecking at the half- 

 grown squabs in a frenzy. Thinking, of course, 

 the bird was a bad-tempered bachelor, I chased 

 him out of the house, caught him with a net, 

 and threw him rather roughly into the bachelor 

 pen. 



He lit on the roof of the little house among 

 a dozen or more bachelors. The poor thing 

 crouched down in seeming agony, and, suppos- 

 ing I had unwittingly injured it, I watched a 

 moment before I noticed the faces of the bach- 

 elors. Instead of bowing and cavorting around 

 in sarcastic welcome as they usually did when I 

 added a new member to their pen, they stood 

 silent and awe-stricken, with horror and help- 



