EVOLUTION OF THE CARRIER PIGEON. 371 



When pigeons were to be sent back and forth, it has been 

 usual to keep two sets, with their respective homes at either end 

 of the course ; and when they have reached their home, to carry 

 them back to the places from which they are to be dispatched. 

 An ingenious process has been devised to overcome this difficulty 

 and cause the birds to fly with equal certainty in both directions. 

 Pigeons, for example, whose home is in Paris are confined for sev- 

 eral days at St. Denis, and fed there at a stated hour every day 

 with some favorite food which is not given them at their real 

 home. They become in the course of time familiar with their 

 new home and its choice dishes. When set at liberty, they start 

 off at once for Paris, without forgetting the good things they en- 

 joyed at St. Denis. When they are to be sent back, they are 

 made to fast a little while, and are then let loose at about feeding 

 time at St. Denis. They go thither, and, when they have their 

 own way, time their going so as to be there at the exact moment 

 of feeding. Birds have thus been taught to fly back and forth 

 regularly between places thirty miles apart. 



When a carrier pigeon is set at liberty at a distance from its 

 home, it rises in the air, describing a spiral, higher and still 

 higher, then takes a start. In about a quarter of an hour it will 

 be seen again directly above the point at which it was freed. It 

 starts thence anew, and takes the right direction without hesita- 

 tion. Compare this quickness of decision with the embarrassment 

 experienced in a strange region by an intelligent man who has 

 read up about the country and is fortified with all the knowledge 

 concerning it that science can give him ! 



The sense that guides the pigeon in its direct return to its 

 home is as much a mystery as it ever was. It is not sight, for the 

 bird at its highest flight can not command the vision of a single 

 familiar object or place. Theories of electric currents have been 

 imagined and other methods of analyzing and explaining the in- 

 stinct have been devised, but they are all alike conjectural and 

 insufficient. But while we do not know the cause or the method 

 of the faculty, we have it in our power to modify and direct it in 

 a certain degree. To the wild pigeon, which goes far in search of 

 food, the power to find its way back to its nest is a necessary con- 

 dition to its existence. The domestic pigeon does not have to go 

 long journeys for food, but its return home is nevertheless deter- 

 mined by this question. The best fliers are those which are least 

 competent to pick up anything to eat on the road. The sense of 

 orientation the homing sense has been cultivated and bred in 

 them at the expense of other faculties which have become less 

 useful to them. While very poorly armed to contend with the 

 conditions of a wild state, the carrier pigeon is perfectly equipped 

 for its present conditions of existence and for the services that 



