WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



flight. There is no greater error than to suppose 

 that carrier-pigeons sent a long distance from home 

 in any direction will always return, as though at- 

 tracted by a load-stone. The benevolent lady re- 

 ceived only a good-natured laugh for her pains 

 when she offered to equip one of the British 

 arctic expeditions with these winged messengers, 

 who, she supposed, could be despatched from any 

 point with tidings, and have a fair chance of get- 

 ting straight back to England. 



A pigeon's power of memory is really wonderful. 

 Beginning with short stages, perhaps of not more 

 than a dozen miles, the final stage of a match- 

 flight of five hundred miles will be more than one 

 hundred. The country has been seen but once, 

 yet the bird remembers it, and not only for the 

 three or four days of a match, but for months. In 

 June, 1877, birds trained from Bath to London 

 were twice flown. On June nth of 1878 they re- 

 peated the trip at good speed. Such feats are not 

 uncommon with Belgian birds — the best of all — 

 and there have been several authenticated instances 

 of their going off-handed from England to Bel- 

 gium after having been kept in confinement many 

 months. But the homing intelligence of pigeons 

 is subject to much irregularity of action, and this 

 IS 225 



