178 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



ers of the birds which should return to Brussels 

 in the shortest space of time. The first prize 

 was won by a man whose pigeon arrived at 

 thirty -one minutes past three o'clock in the 

 afternoon. Another pigeon came at thirty- 

 nine minutes past two ; and a third at twenty 

 minutes before three. The distance from Ly- 

 ons to Brussels, by the rail-road, is about six 

 hundred miles. The first pigeon performed 

 the journey in seven hours and a half, which 

 is at the rate of eighty miles an hour for the 

 whole distance. 



These birds are not brought up at present 

 with so much care as formerly,, when they were 

 sent from governors in a besieged city to gen- 

 erals that were coming to relieve it without^ 

 and when they were sent from princes to their 

 subjects, with the tidings of some fortunate 

 event. Only a few years ago^ however, while 

 the means of communicating between different 

 parts of the country were much more limited 

 than they ai'e at present, it was ascertained 

 that, in some mysterious way, at every arrival 

 of a steamer from Great Britain^ the news 

 respecting the state of the markets in England 

 was carried to New York and Boston^ very 

 soon after the vessel touched at Halifax, and 

 before the express established for the purpose 



