THE PIGEON BOOK 153 



I put this down to his being worked all over London in 

 short races. 



Now another very good plan to obtain success with 

 short-distance pigeons is to get your pigeon sitting about 

 ten days, and if you are going to fly a cock keep him off 

 his eggs until about fifteen minutes before you are going 

 to put him in the basket, then let him go on the eggs 

 fifteen minutes, pick him up and let him see his eggs, but 

 do not let him see his hen — put her where he cannot see 

 her before he goes to the race. You will find him making 

 haste home to get on the eggs, but, of course, you will let 

 the hen get on them as soon as you have sent him for 

 the race. If you are going to race the hen, do not let 

 her go on the eggs at night, but let the cock go on them, 

 and if he does not go on them fasten him in where he 

 has got the eggs, taking care not to let him see the 

 hen, and he will then sit at night, even if he has been 

 sitting during the day. About fifteen minutes before you 

 want to send the hen for the race, take the cock away, 

 and let her go on the eggs for fifteen minutes before putting 

 her in the basket for the race, and you will find that she 

 will be making haste to get home to her eggs. 



I have always found these methods answer well. 



The species of birds that we used to fly with thirty 

 years ago were similar to those that we fly long distances 

 with now, only with a bit more Skinnum in them; but 

 forty-five or fifty years ago we flew Skinnum and large 

 coarse-faced Beards ; but old Mr. Barber, of Club Row, a 

 great fancier and dealer in pigeons, had some blue 

 chequers sent over from Antwerp, which were nice cobby 

 little pigeons, so we used to buy some of these from him 

 and cross them in with the Skinnum, and in this way we 

 got some of the face off the Skinnum breed, and were 

 able to produce a more cobby sort of pigeon than the 



