36 



MISCELLANY 



HOMING PIGEON. 



Sleep little pigeon and fold your wings, 



Little blue pigeon with velvet eyes. 

 Sleep to the singing of mother-bird 

 swinging, 

 Swinging the nest where her little one 

 lies. 



In through the window a moonbeam 

 comes. 

 Little gold moonbeam with misty 

 wings. 

 All silently creeping it asks is he sleeping. 

 Sleeping and dreaming while mother 

 sings ? 

 But sleep little pigeon and fold your 

 wings, 

 Little blue pigeon with mournful eyes. 

 Am I not singing? See I am swinging, 

 Swinging the nest where my darling 

 lies. — Eugene Field. 



ONE day a carrier pigeon tapped at 

 the window of Mrs. Nansen's home at 

 Christiania. Instantly the window was 

 opened, and the wife -of the great Arctic 

 explorer in another moment covered the 

 little messenger with kisses and caresses. 

 The carrier pigeon had been away from 

 the cottage thirty long months, but had 

 not forgotten the way home. It brought 

 a note from Nansen, stating that all was 

 going well with his expedition in the 

 polar regions. Nansen had fastened a 

 message to the bird and turned it loose. 

 The frail courier darted out into the Arc- 

 tic air, flew like an arrow over perhaps a 

 thousand miles of frozen waste, and then 

 over another thousand miles of ocean and 

 plain and forest, to enter the window of 

 its waiting mistress and deliver the mes- 

 sage which she had been awaiting so 

 anxiously. We boast of human sagacity 

 and endurance, but this loving carrier 

 pigeon, after an absence of thirty months, 

 accomplished a feat so wonderful that we 

 can only give ourselves up to wonder and 

 admiration. 



Utilization of the homing instinct of 

 the domesticated varieties of the Blue 

 Rock pigeon, the columha livia, by em- 

 ploying the birds as messengers for phy- 



sicians living at some distance from their 

 patients, is comparatively new and is the 

 latest evidence of the value of these 

 birds. A few doctors have made the ex- 

 periment, and^ it only remains to prove 

 the facility with which the pigeons can be 

 employed in order to determine whether 

 they are likely to come into general use 

 for this purpose. 



The importance of establishing pigeon 

 service for busy, overworked country 

 doctors is strongly urged in favor of the 

 plan, and it is agreed that there is no 

 other such efficient or speedy means of 

 carrying messages. 



The carrier dove, which is the emblem 

 of peace, though used in these times for 

 carrying war messages, obeys the one 

 governing impulse of its small heart 

 when, released at a distance from its 

 mate and its nest, it turns with marvel- 

 ous fidelity to its home cote. With no 

 compass except that home-seeking in- 

 stinct, no reliance except in the exqui- 

 sitely adjusted beat of its wings, it soars 

 upward until its keen eyesight and quick 

 perceptions give certainty of direction; 

 then, at a splendid pace of 1,400 yards in 

 a minute, it speeds on its journey home. 



MATED BIRDS THE BEST. 



Once a male bird has regularly mated 

 he will fly back to his duties as a husband 

 and father as fast as he can. These du- 

 ties are serious and practical, for the 

 male bird bears his full share in sitting 

 upon the eggs and in feeding the nest- 

 lings when hatched, for which purpose 

 both cock and hen possess special facul- 

 ties and functions. The homing tendency 

 acts best when it is entirely concentrated. 

 For example, it has been found that a 

 mated pair will not fly home together 

 with anything like proper certainty. They 

 stop and dally by the way ; they behave 

 like holiday people who have "got some- 

 body to mind the babies." 



In order to have trustworthy messen- 

 gers for war or peace the pigeons must 

 not be bachelors nor loafers nor be flown 

 with associates ; they must be the respect- 



