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CHAP, ii.] MEEITS OF THE COCK. 57 



only of their union. He takes a share, though a minor 

 one, of the task of incubating ; and he more than per- 

 forms his half-share of the labour of rearing the young. 

 At about noon, oftentimes 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 in- 

 duce 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 (with 

 probably a cross of the E,unt), who, by following this 

 line was, with but little assistance from any female, an 

 excellent provider of pie materials, till he succeeded in 

 educating a hen Barb to be a steady wife and mother. 

 It quite put us in mind of those discreet old gentlemen 

 who send their young brides to school before they 

 marry them. The pair are still equally prolific. In- 

 deed, Pigeons that have become attached to their home, 

 and have made choice of a partner, no matter of what 

 sort, cross-bred or otherwise, should never be destroyed. 

 They will have rendered, if fairly fed, such substantial 

 assistance to the pastry-cook in the course of their adult 

 period (the duration of which is not well defined), as to 



