38 MISCELLANY 



of hard racing work, the season com- country that have covered more than 



mencing in April. The length of the races 1,000 miles, air line, the extreme distance 



varies from 50 or 100 to as much as 600 covered being 1,212 miles, 



miles. There is hot competition between It seems really impossible to extinguish 



rival fanciers and great excitement about the homing instinct in a good pigeon. A 



the results. story is told of a French carrier pigeon 



Winter is the pigeon's time of retire- which was captured by the German sol- 



ment. He is not compelled to race, for diers during the siege of Paris in 1870. 



racing is only profitable when wind is fair The bird was being carried in a balloon 



and the air is absolutely clear. Whatever from Paris to some point in the countfy, 



the wonderful power that guides the whence it was expected to return to Paris 



pigeon home over hundreds of miles of with a message. It was taken to the Ger- 



unknown country, it is certain that sight man headquarters and presented to the 



plays an important part, for the least sign commander, prince Frederick Charles, 



of haziness in the air will put the pigeon who sent it to his mother in Germany, 



in the position of a derelict ship. Here it was placed in a splendid roomy 



A bird of good quality costs from $5 aviary and carefully fed and nourished ; 



to $20 when one month old, and a prac- but, although it was kept here, living in 



ticed racer one year old generally brings the lap of royal luxury for four years, the 



from $2 s to $100. French pigeon did not forget its father- 



ji 



When using these birds for messenger 



service the message is written upon the At the end of that time the aviary was 

 thinnest rice paper, rolled up and depos- left open one day. The pigeon flew out, 

 ited in an aluminum holder, which is fas- mounted high in the air, flew about for a 

 tened to the bird's leg. This holder is moment, as if to find the points of the 

 in the shape of a capsule, with a small compass and started in a straight line for 

 band which is easily attached to the leg of Paris. Ten days afterward it beat its 

 the bird. Professor Marion of the Naval wings against the entrance to its old loft 

 Academy at Annapolis invented the hold- in the Boulevard de Clichy. There it was 

 er, which is water tight when the lid is recognized and its case being brought to 

 on, and weighs but eight grains. One of public attention it was honored as a pa- 

 the most remarkable incidents illustrating triot returned from foreign captivity. It 

 the wonderful memory of a homing remained at the Paris Jardin d'Acclima- 

 pigeon was that of a bird made a prisoner tation until it died in 1878. 

 during the Franco-Prussian war. This J n Belgium, where pigeon racing is as 

 pigeon after being in captivity for ten great sport as horse racing is in England 

 years immediately returned to its home an d America, the birds have made a speed 

 after being liberated from confinement in o f seventy miles an hour for short dis- 

 a foreign country. tances. From thirty to forty miles an 

 The hardships which these birds will hour, is, however, the average speed of 

 unflinchingly face in returning home can the average bird. Though not by nature 

 hardly be appreciated by those who are strong of wing or equipped for long 

 not familiar with them. Birds so badly flight, the birds have been known to cover 

 shot or torn by hawks as to be rendered great 'distances. Probably the longest 

 almost helpless, notwithstanding their in- journey of which there is any record was 

 juries will struggle onward until at last made some ten years ago. A family of 

 their home is reached. From extreme birds had been taken from Belgium to 

 distances, such as points beyond 500 New York, where they were to be bred 

 miles, the birds are at a great disadvan- and trained. They were released from 

 tage, inasmuch as they are thereby forced the cote before they had been thoroughly 

 to forage for themselves, something they domesticated, and straightway disap- 

 are not trained to do. As a result they peared. Two weeks later three of the 

 are unreliable and slow when called upon pigeons, bedraggled, weary and ^ nearly 

 for such work. There are birds which dead, arrived at their native cote in Bel- 

 have homed 614 miles air line the day af- gium. How they had made the long 

 ter, and there are a few pigeons in this ocean voyage nobody ever knew, but they 



