CHAPTER XXXII 



THE DOVE NOT A PEACE BIRD 



DOVES, according to popular tradition, are the last 

 things in the world to connect with war. Doves 

 and pigeons are, or were, pacifists of the most virulent 

 type. Another cherished yarn has to go by the wall, 

 .for an authority says that "'five minutes in a pigeon- 

 cote ^ "^ ^ ^vill result in a lifetime of wondering 

 why the idealized bird was chosen as an emblem of 

 peace, for this stout-hearted little bird, once called the 

 **dove of peace," is now known and cherished as "the 

 war-pigeon.'' 



There ''being nothing new under the sun," one is 

 not surprised to find that the ancient Egyptians and 

 Persians used pigeons, just as today, as messengers in 

 war-time. Then from the Orient to Holland and Bel- 

 gium and ^lerrie England came the birds, the ances- 

 tors of the pigeons that have played so important a 

 part in driving the Huns to their lairs. 



It brings the subject close home to us when we re- 

 member that in the Pigeon Division of the Signal 

 Corps Louis Wahl and \Mlliam Smead. of the New 

 York "Zoo," are in charge and that Corp. Donald 

 Carter, once in the Gardens, is in active service in 

 France, among '"the doves." 



Mr. Lee S. Crandall. in The Zoological Society Bul- 

 letin (New York), has interesting things to say about 



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