or so, ^fter which they remove the partition, ^nd they uSHally 

 mate up. It will be seen where many pairs are to be mat|sd it 

 would take considerable time to mate them in this way. How- 

 ever, for fancy birds and where only a few are kept this is the 

 best and only way of mating. If birds are purchased of good 

 reliable parties, they are usually mated when shipped to the pur- 

 chaser. This is one of the greatest objects in purchasing, for 

 many lofts are full of birds, one-half of which are unmated. 

 Unmated birds, of course, are unprofitable. 



One odd cock in a loft will do \more damage by picking and 

 killing squabs than diseases will. He is continually fighting the 

 other cocks and destroying eggs and annoying hens while setting. 

 If one is found without a mate remove him from the breeding 

 pens, and do not return him until he has a mate. This will 

 usually end all trouble. 



Mating. 



How to Tell Males From Feniales. 



This is one of the most difficult tasks, and even the old 

 experienced breeders mjgs it sometimes. As a rule the cock 

 bird is the largest and has a dififerent shaped head. A cock bird 

 when it cooes' will tu,rn completely around, but a ben bird sel- 

 dom does. Ofttimes we see a bird chasing or driving a bird 

 inside and out of the coop. The bird doing the chasing is the 

 male and the bird pursued is a female, The beet ^nd safest 

 method of telling a male from a female is by the size and shape 

 of the vent bones. In a cock bird the bones are crooked and 

 almost touch, in many cases do touch, wherein a h#n bird the 

 bones are straight and from a quarter to a baJf inch apart, Thi« 

 is due to their nature of laying eggs. Of course, the hen bird 



