80 PROFITABLE PIGEON BREEDING 



or several generations back in the line. It does not necessarily 

 nnean just back to the parents but even on back to the great 

 great grandparents. As an example of this we see the \Miite 

 Kings with feathers on their legs and sometimes after carefully 

 investigating the matter we hud that their parents were clean 

 leg specimens. These feathers come from related specimens 

 several generations back in the line yet a majorit\' of White 

 Kings show clean legs and we breed them to get such legs. 



CONTAMINATION: In breeding pigeons there is very little 

 chance, if any, for contamination iluc to the fact that pigeons 

 mate in pairs and remain so mated as long as they li\e unless 

 they are separatetl by man. They are faithful to their mates 

 and in my experience 1 have but once known or seen a female 

 of a mated pair of pigeons i-ecei\'e service from a male other 

 than her mate. In this case both bii'ds were of the same breed. 

 For contamination to take place in pigeons tlie male and female 

 nnist bo of different breeds or \arieties. Such contamination 

 as this would of course result in a cross-bred offspring. Tbei'C 

 is no need of worry on the part of the breeder concerning con- 

 tamination in pigeons as long as lie keeps unmated )iairs of 

 different breeds separated. 



PREPOTENCY: This is one of the principles of breeding 

 about -which we rarely ever see anytliing \\ritten or scarcely 

 ever hear of in connection with pigeons. Certainly there are 

 prepotent pigeons. In other words there are certain si)ecimens 

 in every loft of any size which have that power of transmitting 

 to or stamping on their offsiH-ing certain characteristics. For 

 example: There are birds which excell in breeding cpialities 

 and if they have the power to transmit these qualities to their 

 offspring then we would say that they are prejiotenf in that 

 respect. The degree in whicdi birds are lu-epofiuit of course 

 varies. We might have birds that are excellent in color and 

 which transmit tins ((uality to only a few of their (iffspi-ing. 



These bii'ds are |irepofeiit in a lesser degree. On tl tlier hand 



A\'e might liave birds which arc cxceili'iit in color vvliicb trans 

 mil this ([uality to the greater iiorlion of llieii' ohs|)riiig. These 



