CHAPTER XI 

 MATING AND SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK 



HOW PIGEONS MATE 



Pigeons will mate and go to raising squabs under almost 

 any conditions. Naturally, they will mate and do better under 

 favorable conditions than otherwise. 



Almost any male or female, pigeon will mate with almost any 

 other male or female, regardless of size, color or kind, provided, 

 of course, they are given an opportunity to mate by shutting 

 them up together, or putting them in a pen where there are no 

 other unmated birds. If ten, twenty or more females are put 

 into a pen with an ecfual number of males, in time there will 

 be as many mated pairs, as there are males and females com- 

 bined in the pen. That is to say, if 20 males were put in with 20 

 females and 19 of each mated, the twentieth male and twentieth 

 female would then mate, there being no other odd birds in the 

 rien for them to mate with. As a matter of fact, pigeons do very 

 little choosing when it comes to selecting mates. The time, 

 place, and condition of the birds has more to do with their 

 pairing up than any particular attraction that one bird might 

 have for another bird of the opposite sex. 



For instance, if a male has no place to mate, he is not apt to 

 want to mate, but if he has a home, so to speak, (a place to 

 build a nest that he considers his private property), he will 

 protect that place from all other birds, and it will be his natural 

 prolific instinct to secure a mate and go to housekeeping. When 

 he is in this mood, he will go to his nesting box, or place he 

 controls, and call for a female by successive long, cooing sounds. 

 He will keep this up for hours at a time. If there is an un- 

 mated female in the pen, such cooing is "sweet music to her 

 ears," and will attract her to the nest or place where the male 

 is. She will find him in a squatting position, and generally 

 slightly flapping or quivering one wing, as he coos or calls. 

 To signify her willingness to mate, she will fly up to the en- 

 trance of the nest with her wings slightly held out from hej 



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