PIGEONS. 295 



phoses', who tells us that Taurosthenes, by a pigeon stained 

 with purple, gave notice of his having been victor at the 

 Olympic games on the very same day to his father at ^gina. 

 Pliny informs us that during the siege of Modena by Marc 

 Antony, pigeons were employed by Brutus to keep up a. cor- 

 respondence with the besieged. When the city of Ptolemais, 

 in Syria, was invested by the French and Venetians, and it 

 was ready to fall into their hands, they observed a pigeon 

 flying over them, and immediately conjectured that it was 

 charged with letters to the garrison. On this, the whole army 

 raising a loud shout, so confounded the poor aerial post that 

 it fell to the ground, and on being seized, a letter was found 

 under its wings, from the sultan, in which he assured the 

 garrison that 'he would be with them in three days, with an 

 army sufficient to raise the siege. ' For this letter the besiegers 

 substituted another to this purpose, 'that the garrison must 

 see to their own safety, for the sultan had such other affairs 

 pressing him that it was impossible for him to come to their 

 succour;' and with this false intelligence they let the pigeon 

 free to pursue his course. The garrison, deprived by this 

 decree of all hope of relief, immediately surrendered. The 

 sultan appeared on the third day, as promised, with a power- 

 ful army, and was not a little mortified to find the city already 

 in the hands of the Christians. Carrier pigeons were again 

 employed, but with better success, at the siege of Leyden, in 

 1675. The garrison were, by means of the information thus 

 conveyed to them, induced to stand out, till the enemy, 

 despairing of reducing the place, withdrew. On the siege 

 being raised, the Prince of Orange ordered that the pigeons 

 who had rendered such essential service should be maintained 

 at the public expense, and that at their death they should be 

 embalmed and preserved in the town house, as a perpetual 

 token of gratitude." 



Pigeons on Pigeons are said to travel as fast as 2,200 yards 

 the Wing, per minute and to sustain flight for hundreds of 



