BY WILLIAM G. BARTON. 65 



or stand as still as a Kogers group, tightly braced with 

 outspread wings and legs. That they are seldom much 

 injured in these fights is only because they are poorly 

 armed. A squab which has tumbled to the floor is not 

 unfrequently terribly lacerated sometimes even killed 

 by old birds ; and a sick pigeon is invariably persecuted 

 with vehement malice. I regret to disturb any long cher- 

 ished notion in the minds of my hearers, but am thus in 

 the fashion in these iconoclastic times. You will find very 

 much in these birds to compensate for a character often so 

 unlovely ; and their habit of generally mating for life, 

 and always very fondly, remains a remarkable fact. 



The perpetuation and improvement of existing varieties 

 and the formation of new ones depend upon the fact that 

 pigeons very kindly accept mates chosen by their owners, 

 so that they may be made to mate according to the points 

 possessed by the proposed parents and desired in the off- 

 spring. Many pages of tedious detail have been written 

 as to what birds should be mated to produce a given result. 

 As the French in roses, the Dutch in bulb flowers, so, for 

 example, have the Germans shown marvellous skill in the 

 production of variously marked and colored pigeons. 



A cock and hen pigeon placed in a cage together, will 

 generally mate in a day or two, unless the hen whip the 

 cock. In which case, a few days sole possession of the 

 cage will commonly furnish him with sufficient courage 

 to bring the hen to submission. Two cock pigeons 

 may mate, when males are too numerous, and, if given 

 eggs, rear young; and females have been known to 

 do the same, each laying two eggs in the nest, on which 

 they sit with amusing patience. The nest is generally the 

 choice of the cock, if not of the fancier. He flies into it, 

 scratches about or crouches perfectly motionless and calls 

 softly, louder and louder, to his mate, peeping out now 



