Utility and Beonomy of Birds 
motor lofts were extensively employed. The 
PIGEONS were taken by bicyclists in wicker 
crates to the front-line trenches, where they 
proved of the greatest use; particularly 
when the telegraph and telephone wires had 
been cut by shell fire, and when it became 
impossible for the intrepid “‘runners’”’ to 
bring back messages on foot. Pigeon-post 
messages when written and folded are carried 
in a cup placed in a small cylindrical carrier 
of aluminium clipped to the bird’s leg. The 
PIGEON on returning to one of the latest type 
of lofts, hearing its mate calling inside, finds 
its way to a ledge under the window fitted with 
hinged wires that only open inwards. Push- 
ing through these, the bird’s weight presses 
on the lightly balanced interior platform, 
completing an electric circuit and so ringing 
a bell, which warns the attendant in his 
dug-out of the arrival of a messenger. Some 
of the longest distances flown in the war 
were 300 miles, and one female PIGEON flew 
166 sea-miles three weeks in succession with 
despatches from the North Sea. Usually the 
birds fly these long distances about once a 
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