MISCELLANY 



37 



able mated birds with establishments, so 

 that in employing them for war messen- 

 gers one actually presses domestic virtue, 

 as well as love and parental instinct, into 

 the service of the military. 



But even the peaceful pigeon can be 

 sometimes pugnacious on his own ac- 

 count, and a jealous fantail, or tumbler, or 

 Antwerp, or Jacobin often will conduct 

 himself like a game cock, though painters 

 and poets from time immemorial have 

 agreed to regard this bird as the natural 

 emblem of gentleness and peace. It is the 

 accepted token of the Holy Spirit, "which 

 descended in the form of a dove." All lit- 

 eratures are full of this thought. 



PIGEONS IN LEGEND AND STORY. 



The Arabs have a story that when an 

 angel of Allah ofifered to King Solomon 

 the water of immortality in a ruby cup it 

 was a dove that dissuaded him from 

 drinking it, and thereby from living 

 mournfully to survive those whom he 

 loved in an earth grown desolate and 

 lonely. And it was because of the ma- 

 ternal courage of a dove which had fol- 

 lowed its captive nestlings all the way to 

 the prophet's house that Mohammed insti- 

 tuted that merciful decree which still pre- 

 vails all over the East, and which forbids 

 true believers to touch or even to taste of 

 the flesh of any creature which has not 

 been "hallalled" ; that is to say, over 

 which, while alive, the prayer of pardona- 

 ble bloodshed has not been uttered. 



The birds, gentle and stainless, which 

 Sappho sang of. harnessed to the golden 

 chariot of the "Splendor-throned Queen, 

 immortal Aphrodite." in some cases have 

 been converted into messengers of death 

 and ruin. Some hold that this is better 

 than to see them immolated for prizes by 

 unsportsmanlike gunners at Monte Carlo 

 and such places, for the birds remain un- 

 aware of their new duties, and carry mes- 

 sages from a beleaguered fortress, or the 

 call for aid from a sinking warship, or the 

 state of a suffering patient, alike careless- 

 ly and ignorantly, as if the missives tied 

 to their feet were perfumed messages sent 

 by lovers. 



USED BY PHYSICIANS. 



In the early '90s Dr. S. Weir Mitchell 

 of Philadelphia used pigeons in the case 

 of a patient ill of nerve fatigue, several 

 miles from his home, thus accomplishing 



two purposes — a daily report and the sal- 

 utary efifect of leading the worn mind of 

 the patient into a new channel. 



Dr. Philip Arnold, in a recent medical 

 journal, tells of receiving messages from 

 his patients in the country every day, in 

 addition to his daily visits to them. His 

 plan usually is to leave a pigeon the day 

 he makes a visit, and direct that the 

 pigeon be liberated the next day with 

 such a message as he requires. With a 

 little care in the instruction of the nurse, 

 he is informed of the condition of the pa- 

 tient before he starts to make his next 

 visit. In a country practice this is im- 

 portant, since it enables the physician to 

 judge what will be needed for his patient 

 in the next twenty-four hours, and the 

 country physician usually is his own 

 druggist. 



Then, again, country doctors cannot 

 often make more than one call on a pa- 

 tient in twenty-four hours, and by an 

 aerial messenger service they can get 

 practically the same information as the 

 doctors in the city or hospital practice by 

 leaving two pigeons and getting morning 

 and evening reports. The country doctor 

 often is called from one patient to other 

 persons sick in the neighborhood. This 

 will make him late in getting back, and it 

 is a great convenience if he can send this 

 information home, practically with the 

 same speed as the city practitioner 

 through the medium of the telephone ser- 

 vice. 



TELLS WHAT KIND TO USE. 



Dr. Arnold suggests that physicians 

 wishing to take this matter up in earnest 

 first of all should purchase only the best 

 of Belgian homing pigeons, one or two 

 pairs well mated. No reliance can be 

 placed on young birds newly purchased 

 for message carriers. Young birds, to be 

 of service, must have been hatched in the 

 home loft. The old birds secured for 

 breeding must not be given their liberty 

 until thev have hatched one or two 

 broods. The youngsters at a certain age 

 can be trained. 



A young pigeon begins his racing life 

 when he is ten weeks old, with graduated 

 journeys, varying from two to fifty and 

 seventy miles' in length. At the age of 

 six months he is usually fed on a diet of 

 beans and maple peas for a fe\y months 



