For example, the breeders of white fantail pigeons agree that perfect birds shall be of certain shape and size, with the head resting on the back just at the base of the tail; the tail should be spread out like a fan and contain at least twenty-eight feathers.  These feathers should be laced on the ends.  The model fantail should have a nervous jerky motion and never be at rest.  Each of these points is given a certain value on a scale of marking and in judging the birds they are marked just as you may be in your lessons at school.  The fancier tries to breed a bird that comes the nearest to this model.  The prizes are sometimes of great value.

There is an enormous list of breeds in nearly all varieties of animals and poultry.  In pigeons alone there are carriers, pouters, tumblers, baldheads, beards, dragoons, barbs, jacobins, Antwerps, turbits, owls, orientals, damoscenes, capuchins, fantails, trumpeters, swifts, Lahores, Burmese, Scandaroons, magpies, nuns, Archangels, runts and so on.

These birds are very different in appearance, the pouter, for example, has the power of inflating his crop until it puffs out in front as large as a baseball.  Jacobins or as they are commonly called, “ruffle-necks,” have an immense ruffle of feathers like a feather boa.  Dragoons have a huge wart on the bill as large as an almond.  The tumblers are so named from their habit of turning backward somersaults during flight.

Almost every one who starts keeping domestic pets either soon tires of the sport or becomes a fancier.  The care of common pigeons is a very simple matter.  The principal thing is a good loft or cote for them in the top of a barn or house.  They will practically take care of themselves and after a few years greatly increase in numbers.

A model pigeon house for breeding fancy pigeons requires separate mating boxes, nests and other appliances.  It would be impossible to make much of a success with fancy pigeons if they are allowed their liberty to fly about and mate at will.

The best nest boxes for pigeons are rough earthenware pans, eight inches across, which may be bought cheaply at a bird store.  The floor of the cote should be covered with sawdust or gravel to the depth of half an inch.  Pigeons that are confined should be fed regularly on a mixture of small grains and cracked corn.  They should also be given cracked oyster shells, grit and charcoal occasionally.  A pigeon loft should be rat proof and clean.

It is very doubtful whether there is any money in raising pigeons or squabs for market.  Fanciers never sell their output for market purposes unless it is to get rid of surplus or undesirable stock.  A breeder who is successful in winning prizes with birds of his “strain” as it is called will find a ready market with other breeders for all the birds he cares to sell.  Prize winning birds sometimes bring a hundred dollars a pair.  It is by no means easy to breed prizewinners and the chances are that the beginner will be a buyer of stock rather than a seller.