MATCHING OP PIGEONS. 27 



pecks, if necessary, insists upon her attending to her business at 

 home. Like the good husband described in Fuller's Holy State, 

 'his love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her, and his 

 ruling her lesseneth not his loving her.' And so the hen obeys, 

 occasionally, however, giving some trouble ; but at last she feels 

 that she must discontinue general visiting and long excursions, 

 and enters the modest establishment that has been prepared for 

 her performance of her maternal duties. A day or two after 

 she has signified her acceptance of the new home an egg may 

 be expected to be found there. Over this she (mostly) stands 

 sentinel till, after an intervening day, a second egg is laid, and 

 incubation really commences : not hotly and energetically at first, 

 as with hens, turkeys, and many other birds, but gently and 

 with increasing assiduity. 



" And now the merits of her mate grow apparent. He does 

 not leave his lady to bear a solitary burden of matrimonial care, 

 while he has indulged in the pleasures only of their union. He 

 takes a share, though a minor one, of the task of incubating ; 

 and he more than performs his half share of the labour of rear- 

 ing the young. At about noon, sometimes earlier, the hens 

 leave their nests for air and exercise, as well as food, and the 

 cocks take their place upon the eggs. If you enter a pigeon- 

 loft at about two o'clock in the afternoon, you will find all the 

 cock birds sitting a family arrangement that affords an easy 

 method of discovering which birds are paired with which. The 

 ladies are to be seen taking their respective turns in the same 

 locations early in the morning, in the evening, and all the 

 night. The older a cock pigeon grows, the more fatherly does 

 he become. So great is his fondness for having a rising family, 

 that an experienced unmated cock bird, if he can but induce 

 some flighty young hen to lay him a couple of eggs as a great 

 favour, will almost entirely take the charge of hatching and 

 rearing them by himself. We are possessed of an old Blue 

 Antwerp Carrier who by following this line was, with but little 



