74 NATIONAL STANDARD SQUAB BOOK 



breeding. What you do not do, and what you try to prevent, 

 is the mating of the offspring of pair number one (or any other 

 pair) to- each other. So, you see, if you have a dozen or two 

 pairs, you need never inbreed, for there is an infinite variety 

 of matings possible. Breeders of animals sometimes inbreed 

 purposely in order to get better color of fur or plumage, or 

 finer bones, etc. There are no brothers and sisters in the 

 flocks we sell. If you buy one dozen or twenty dozen pairs 

 of breeders of us, the pairs will be unrelated, and you need 

 never inbreed. We never heard a real pigeon breeder worry 

 much about inbreeding, because the likelihood of it in a flock 

 of even a dozen pairs is extremely remote, as we have demon- 

 strated above. 



PIGEONS IN ST. MARK'S SQUARE, VENICE. 

 Get acquainted with the pigeons which you buy of us, and let them get ac- 

 quainted with you. They will work all the better tor being tame and docile. These 

 pigeons in Venice are fed by tourists on corn only. A peddler selling whole corn 

 for two cents a package sits all day long on the steps at the base of the monument. 

 Several photographers in the square make a specialty of taking pictures of tourists 

 feeding the pigeons; snap shots by amateurs are constantly being made. In this 

 city of canals, these pigeons get no grit, in fact nothine but the corn, and they would 

 die if obliged to pick up a living for themselves. They are healthy, proving the 

 incorrectness of the assertion that a feed of nothing but corn will cause canker. 

 They are small, however, of stunted growth. They are so tame that they will perch 

 on your hand and eat grains of corn held in your lips. 



