Utility and Bconomy of Birds 
of its wounds, and although out in the wet all 
night, the bird struggled home to its loft, a 
distance of nine miles, and delivered its mes- 
sage at 10.53 a.m. the following day, Octo- 
ber 4th, dying shortly after its arrival (The 
Field, 2.i1.1918). The bird has now been 
added to the museum of the Royal United 
Service Institution, Whitehall, where it may 
be seen stuffed in a glass case labelled ‘‘ Died 
of wounds received in action” (Daily Mail, 
25.vii.18). Had the feat of this PIGEON 
been performed by a human being, it might 
well have been rewarded by the V.C. 
It is impossible to estimate the value of 
the “‘carrier’’ service to the Naval, Military, 
and Air Forces. Not only were our PIGEONS 
extensively employed on the Western Front, 
but also at Salonika, in Italy, Egypt, Meso- 
potamia, and elsewhere, and on innumerable 
occasions they carried life-and-death mes- 
sages with superhuman pluck and persever- 
ance. Doubtless our enemies would speak 
as highly of the services of their HoMERS. A 
German pigeon-loft with thirty-five PIGEONS, 
captured by the Canadians at Folies, near 
18 
