Pairing of Pigeons. 
35 
is called ‘ billing,’ which is in fact a kiss, a hearty and intense kiss : as soon as this takes place the 
marriage is complete, and is forthwith consummated. The pair are now united, not necessarily 
for life, though usually so, but rather durante bcnc placito , so long as they continue to be satisfied 
with each other. If they are Tumblers, they mount aloft and try which can tumble best ; if they 
are Pouters, they emulate one the other’s puffings, tail-sweepings, circlets in the air, and wing- 
clappings ; while the Fantails and Runts, and all those kinds which the French call pigeons 
mondains, walk the ground with conscious importance and grace. But this is their honeymoon — 
the time for the frolics of giddy young people. The male is the first to become serious. He 
foresees that ‘the Campbells are coming’ better than his bride, and therefore takes possession of 
some locker or box that seems an eligible tenement. If it is quite empty and bare, he carries to 
it a few straws or light sticks ; but if the apartment has been already furnished for him, he docs 
not at present take much further trouble in that line. Here he settles himself, and begins com- 
plaining. His appeal is sometimes answered by the lady affording him her presence, sometimes 
not ; in which case he does not pine in solitude very long, but goes and searches out his careless 
helpmate, and with close pursuit and a few sharp pecks if necessary, insists upon her attending 
to her business at home. Like the good husband described in Fuller’s Holy State , ‘his love to his 
wife weakeneth not his ruling her, and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her.’ And so the hen 
obeys, occasionally, however, giving some trouble ; but at last she feels that she must discontinue 
general visiting and long excursions, and enters the modest establishment that has been prepared 
for her performance of her maternal duties. A day or two after she has signified her acceptance 
of the new home an egg may be expected to be found there. Over this she (mostly) stands 
sentinel till, after an intervening day, a second egg is laid, and incubation really commences, not 
hotly and energetically at first, as with hens, turkeys, and many other birds, but gently and with 
increasing assiduity. 
“ And now the merits of her mate grow apparent. He does not leave his lady to bear a 
solitary burden of matrimonial care, while he has indulged in the pleasures only of their union. 
He takes a share, though a minor one, of the task of incubating ; and he more than performs his 
half-share of the labour of rearing the young. At about noon, sometimes earlier, the hens leave 
their nests for air and exercise as well as food, and the cocks take their place upon the eggs. If 
you enter a pigeon-loft at about two o’clock in the afternoon, you will find all the cock-birds 
sitting — a family arrangement that affords an easy method of discovering which birds are paired 
with which. The ladies are to be seen taking their respective turns in the same locations early in 
the morning, in the evening, and all the night. The older a cock-pigeon grows, the more fatherly 
does he become. So great is his fondness for having a rising family, that an experienced unmated 
cock-bird, if he can but induce some flighty young hen to lay him a couple of eggs as a great 
favour, will almost entirely take the charge of hatching and rearing them by himself. We are 
possessed of an old Blue Antwerp Carrier who by following this line was, with but little assistance 
from any female, an excellent provider of pie materials, till he succeeded in educating a hen Barb 
to be a steady wife and mother.” 
So far Dixon. It is, however, very seldom that the real pigeon-fancier can let his birds mate 
up themselves in this natural way ; he wants to control their unions to suit his own purposes, and 
this he is able to do by the strong instinct of fidelity when once paired, and which indeed often 
gives him some little trouble when he wishes to undo a previous injudicious match. If a single 
pair of pigeons can be turned into an empty loft nothing further will be required ; but as this can 
seldom be done, the “matching-pen” shown in Fig. 21 will be found in constant demand early in 
the season ; and in fact several are requisite for a good-sized loft. It consists simply of a large 
