76 SQUABS FOR PROFIT 



mated birds usually means an equal number of each 

 sex." One advertiser promises to sell "extra mated 

 Homers." Another is flexible and will fill orders 

 "according to any system of mating." These phrases 

 are all ambiguous and misleading. An "equal number 

 of each sex " does not imply a single mate or pair any 

 more than a crowd of men and women means husbands 

 and wives ; an "extra" mated bird is a nonentity, for if 

 it is mated at all it cannot be more mated, since 

 pigeons are monogamous ; again, bearing clearly in 

 mind the habits of birds, which attend to mating in 

 their own way, it is difiiculi to understand what is 

 meant by promises to fill orders according to "any 

 system of mating." The pigeons have followed their 

 own way, which has never changed and never will. It 

 is an established law of nature no man can change. 



Some advertisers are fond of the statement that 

 young birds will mate at the end of six months. This 

 is true of a few pairs in every hundred, but the prac- 

 tical breeder, who has had any experience does not 

 make such statements. It is true that we have, at 

 present, a single pair of young birds which mated 

 when four months of age, laut the first pair of squabs 

 did not amount to anything, and our experience of lo 

 years has taught us to expect no substantial returns 

 until the flock is a year old. An honest person who 

 desires to make helpful statements will tell a beginner 

 to provide a fund to buy feed for the young birds until 

 they are a year old. 



While it is true that birds will choose their own 

 mates, care must be taken that brothers and sisters and 

 cousins do not mate ; for if this is allowed a few gen- 

 erations will cause such degeneration that lack of vi- 

 tality will be apparent and infertile eggs or puny, 



