38 



MISCELLANY 



of hard racing work, the season com- 

 mencing in April. The length of the races 

 varies from 50 or 100 to as much as 600 

 miles. There is hot competition between 

 rival fanciers and great excitement about 

 the results. 



Winter is the pigeon's time of retire- 

 ment. He is not compelled to race, for 

 racing is only profitable when wind is fair 

 and the air is absolutely clear. Whatever 

 the wonderful power that guides the 

 pigeon home over hundreds of miles of 

 unknown country, it is certain that sight 

 plays an important part, for the least sign 

 of haziness in the air will put the pigeon 

 in the position of a derelict ship. 



A bird of good quality costs from $5 

 to $20 when one month old, and a prac- 

 ticed racer one year old generally brings 

 from $25 to $100. 



When using these birds for messenger 

 service the message is written upon the 

 thinnest rice paper, rolled up and depos- 

 ited in an aluminum holder, which is fas- 

 tened to the bird's leg. This holder is 

 in the shape of a capsule, with a small 

 band which is easily attached to the leg of 

 the bird. Professor Marion of the Naval 

 Academy at Annapolis invented the hold- 

 er, which is water tight when the lid is 

 on, and weighs but eight grains. One of 

 the most remarkable incidents illustrating 

 the wonderful memory of a homing 

 pigeon was that of a bird made a prisoner 

 during the Franco-Prussian war. This 

 pigeon after being in captivity for ten 

 years immediately returned to its home 

 after being liberated from confinement in 

 a foreign country. 



The hardships which these birds will 

 unflinchingly face in returning home can 

 hardly be appreciated by those who are 

 not familiar with them. Birds so badly 

 shot or torn by hawks as to be rendered 

 almost helpless, notwithstanding their in- 

 juries will struggle onward until at last 

 their home is reached. From extreme 

 distances, such as points beyond 500 

 miles, the birds are at a great disadvan- 

 tage, inasmuch as they are thereby forced 

 to forage for themselves, something they 

 are not trained to do. As a result they 

 are unreliable and slow when called upon 

 for such work. There are birds which 

 have homed 614 miles air line the day af- 

 ter, and there are a few pigeons in this 



country that have covered more than 

 1,000 miles, air line, the extreme distance 

 covered being 1,212 miles. 



It seems really impossible to extinguish 

 the homing instinct in a good pigeon. A 

 story is told of a French carrier pigeon 

 which was captured by the German sol- 

 diers during the siege of Paris in 1870. 

 The bird was being carried in a balloon 

 from Paris to some point in the country, 

 whence it was expected to return to Paris 

 with a message. It was taken to the Ger- 

 man headquarters and presented to the 

 commander, Prince Frederick Charles, 

 who sent it to his mother in Germany. 

 Here it was placed in a splendid roomy 

 aviary and carefully fed and nourished ; 

 but, although it was kept here, living in 

 the lap of royal luxury for four years, the 

 French pigeon did not forget its father- 

 land. 



At the end of that time the aviary was 

 left open one day. The pigeon flew out, 

 mounted high in the air, flew about for a 

 moment, as if to find the points of the 

 compass and started in a straight line for 

 Paris. Ten days afterward it beat its 

 wings against the entrance to its old loft 

 in the Boulevard de Clichy. There it was 

 recognized and its case being brought to 

 public attention it was honored as a pa- 

 triot returned from foreign captivity. It 

 remained at the Paris Jardin d'Acclima- 

 tation until it died in 1878. 



In Belgium, where pigeon racing is as 

 great sport as horse racing is in England 

 and America, the birds have made a speed 

 of seventy miles an hour for short dis- 

 tances. From thirty to forty miles an 

 hour, is, however, the average speed of 

 the average bird. Though not by nature 

 strong of wing or equipped for long 

 flight, the birds have been known to cover 

 great distances. Probably the longest 

 journey of which there is any record was 

 made some ten years ago. A family of 

 birds had been taken from Belgium to 

 New York, where they were to be bred 

 and trained. They were released from 

 the cote before they had been thoroughly 

 domesticated, and straightway disap- 

 peared. Two weeks later three of the 

 pigeons, bedraggled, weary and nearly 

 dead, arrived at their native cote in Bel- 

 gium. How they had made the long 

 ocean voyage nobody ever knew, but they 



