STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 181 



could reacli these cities. The thing was for 

 some time a great mystery; but it was at 

 length discovered that the agents of the large 

 dealers in cotton, flour, and other articles, were 

 in the habit of employing persons to take 

 passage in these steamers, who had carrier 

 pigeons with them. When the steamer had 

 reached the American coast, and before she 

 had touched at her wharf in Halifax, they let 

 the messengers loose, with a letter tied under 

 their wings, telling as much about the state of 

 the markets in England as it was necessary for 

 the merchants to know. As soon as these 

 birds received their liberty, they flew toward 

 their home, and scarcely stopped till they 

 reached it, or fell down from fatigue. Several 

 of them were found dead on the way. The 

 distance was too great for them. They flew 

 until they exhausted all their strength, and 

 then dropped down dead. Of course, this 

 smuggling business was stopped, as soon as the 

 captain of the steamer found out what was 

 going on. 



A laughable story of some carrier pigeons 

 is told in an Antwerp newspaper. The editor 

 of a celebrated journal published in that city, 

 sent a reporter to Brussels for the "king's 

 speech," and with him a couple of carrier 



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