136 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE 



body alighting, with her neck feathers puffed out, which gives 

 her, as a whole, a very mild and pleasing appearance. While 

 the male is anxious for a female to come, he, nevertheless, con- 

 siders her an intruder, as far as his house is concerned, and, 

 therefore, at first he will not let her come into the nest box or 

 get too familiar on his premises. He will fight her away vigor- 

 ously, and then go back and resume his calling. The female 

 not to be discouraged, will return again and again, until finally 

 the male will let her come into the nesting box, which place she 

 will enter, strutting and prancing in a very sprightly manner. 

 She will rush right in almost on top of the male and pick him 

 on the head and neck. For a time he will chase her away and 

 then finally submit. If they are not disturbed or separated at 

 this point, they will soon consider themselves mated, but the 

 courtship and lovemaking does not end here. 



Newly mated pairs can be found at almost any hour, for sev- 

 eral days after they have mated, squatting together in the nest- 

 ing place; the male now having changed his long loud coos to 

 short, low tones, uttered in quick succession. The female will 

 also coo a little during this period, but her cooing is not as loud 

 or as coarse as the male. The same lovemaking will take place 

 each time before a nest is built for a new setting of eggs and 

 squabs, but only for short periods. Like people, their longest 

 honeymoon is at the start. 



If the female has no mate and does not hear any calling 

 or long cooing, she will signify her desire to mate by prancing 

 up and down with her wings spread away from her body, slight- 

 ly, and now and then strutting with her tail on the ground. 

 She will show these signs particularly strong as she lights after 

 short flights from one place to another. Males that already 

 have mated will be attracted by this flirtation, and often take 

 advantage of the opportunity to court unmated females when 

 they see them strutting around in this fashion. While the male 

 does not intend to permanently mate with the female, she does 

 not seem to know this, and takes him to be sincere (human 

 nature). Sometimes a male will become so fascinated and 

 interested with his new prospective spouse, that he will desert 

 his regular mate even though she might have eggs or young 

 squabs. In fact, such a condition is more apt to happen if she 

 has eggs, for the reason if she is on eggs she does not see him; 



