228 



THE CARRIER PIGEON. 



year ; and though only two eggs are laid at a time, their increase ia 80 

 rapid and prodigious, that, at the expiration of four years, the pro- 

 duce, and descendants, of a single pair, may amount to the immense 

 number of nearly fifteen thousand. 



The usual way to entice Pigeons to remain at a required spot, is to 

 place what is called a salt-cat near them. This is composed of loam, 

 old rubbish, and salt, and will so effectually answer the purpose as to 

 decoy even those which belong to other places. 



We have a singular anecdote of the eflect of music on a Pigeon, re- 

 lated by John Lockman, in some reflectiono 

 concerning operas, prefixed to his musical drama 

 of Rosalinda. This person being at the house of 

 Mr. Lee, a gentleman who lived in Cheshire, and 

 whose daughter was a fine performer on the harp- 

 sichord, he observed a Pigeon, which, whenever 

 the young lady played the song of " Speri si" 

 in Handel's opera of Admetus. (and this only,) 

 would descend from an adjacent Dovehouse to 

 the room-window where she sat, and listen to it 

 apparently with the most pleasing emotions ; and when the song wae 

 finished, it always returned immediately to the Dove-house. 



WILD naaoR. 



CARRIER PIGEOS. 



CARRIER PIGEON. 



There are upwards of twenty varieties of the Domestic Pigeon ; and 



of these the Carriers are the most celebrated. 



They obtained their name from their being 



sometimes employed to convey letters and 



small packets from one place to another. 

 It is through attachment to their native 



place, and particulaaly to the spot where 



they have brought up their young-ones, that 



they are thus rendered useful to mankind. 



The bird is conveyed from its home to the 



place whence the information is intended to 



be sent ; the letter is tied under its wing, 



and it is let loose. From the instant of its liberation its flight is di- 



rected through the clouds, at an amazing height, to its home. By an 



instinct altogether inconceivable, it darts onward, in a straight line, to 



the very spot whence it was taken ; but how 

 it can direct its flight so exactly, will prol>- 

 ably for ever remain unknown to us. 



The rapidity of their flight is very won- 

 derful. Lithgow assures us that one of 

 them will carry a letter from Babylon to 

 Aleppo (which, to a man, is usually thirty 

 days' journey) in forty-eight hours. To 

 measure their speed with some degree of 

 exactness, a gentleman some years ago, on a 



