140 AMERICAN SQUAB CULTURE 



struts, and will do very little cooing. The feathers on the end 

 of the male's tail are generally worn out and the feathers on 

 the female's tail are usually in perfect condition. This is caused 

 by the male dragging his tail on the ground when strutting and, 

 as a rule, is a very good means of telling the sex. 



After a pair of pigeons have become mated, they will be found 

 together more or less until they lay and go to setting. They gen- 

 erally start to building a nest several days before they lay and 

 during that time they do a lot of spooning, lovemaking or 

 kissing. Here again the male bird can be distinguished from 

 the female by its actions. The male bird will pick behind one 

 wing at intervals during the billing process. The male bird 

 then opens his mouth or beak, in which the female inserts her 

 beak, and the two go through a pumping like motion. This is 

 called kissing. Billing is another term for kissing. If a male 

 birds wants to kiss, and the female is Tiot particular, he will walk 

 around picking himself under the wing and working his throat 

 like he was swallowing something. If a female wants to kiss 

 and the male is indisposed, she will run up to his side, and 

 stretch her head up to his, fumbling arovmd his beak and over 

 his head with her beak. The male seems to enjoy this and will 

 often sit down and shut his eyes, while the female keeps up her 

 fondling. 



There are several old-fashioned tests for determining the sex 

 of pigeons, but I have never found any of them very dependable. 

 It is said that if you catch a female around the body, holding 

 her wings down to her body with both hands, then throw the 

 hands up and down, she will throw her tail up, while the male 

 held in the same position and with the same movement will 

 throw his tail down. 



Another test is made in the dark with a candle or lamp. The 

 male is supposed to look directly at the light and the female 

 to one side. All such tests more or less remind me of the fel- 

 low who said he positively could tell a male from a female by 

 throwing some hemp in where the bird was. Then, if he ate 

 the hemp, it was a he, and if she ate it, it was a she. 



A fairly good sex test is to feel of the vent bones. On the male 

 they are generally very close together, and on the female they 

 are separated, one-half inch or more. This test applies better 

 with birds a year old or more, or after they have started to lay. 



