To match or pair a cock and hen, it is necessary to shut them together, or near and within reach of each other; and the connexion is generally formed in a day or two. Various rules have been laid down, by which to distinguish the cock from the hen pigeon; but the masculine forwardness and action of the cock, is for the most part distinguishable.
The following singular detection of a thief occurred on a late examination at Queen Square, Westminster:—Mr. Bepy, in the Wandsworth road, had his pigeon-house robbed. A known thief was stopped on the road with six fancy pigeons in his possession, by Sergeant Reardon of the police, and taken before the magistrates, but no evidence appearing against him, he was discharged, and suffered to take away the birds, which he claimed as having purchased them. Cooper, an officer of the court, being somewhat up to the pigeon fancy, and seeing them above the common sort, purchased them, and very commendably determined to find out the real owner, which he effected in the following ingenious mode. Selecting a fine bald-head, he attached a note to its foot, with his address, and then threw up the pigeon, which instantly flew to its own home, and was recovered by its owner, who returned it to Cooper, making him a present of the half-dozen as a reward for his sagacity.
The starling is a great enemy to pigeons, by sucking their eggs, and even destroying their young. In October, 1800, seven hundred and eighty starlings were taken in one night in a dove-cot belonging to Mr. Slater, of Chalton, near Lincoln.
In 1807, was in the possession of Mr. Knight, of Chichester, a hen pigeon of the pouter species, who, in that summer, hatched three pair of young. She is twenty-one years old, and is considered a remarkable instance of longevity, as Buffon, and other naturalists, have not allowed this bird, from the heat of its nature, above eight or nine years of life, and to be incapable of procreation after seven.
The penalty for shooting them is 20s. for each pigeon. (Under statute of 1 Jac. I.)