80 BIRDS WADING DIAGRAM 4. 



Pigeons are accustomed when taken from their dovecotes, to return 

 through the air from a very great distance. The breeds which can 

 thus retrace their route are called carrier pigeons. They have 

 sometimes been made to undertake very long journeys, but they 

 always succeed much better in spring and summer than during the 

 winter. A cage of pigeons caught in a dovecote is brought to the 

 distance first of fifty miles, then to a hundred, then to two or three 

 hundred, and sometimes to five or six hundred miles or more, and 

 the pigeons are afterwards set at liberty. They are then seen to rise 

 to a great height, turn round several times in the air, and then all 

 at once take flight with a sudden start in the direction of their 

 dovecote, where they arrive at the end of the one, two, or three 

 days, worn out with fatigue. Carrier pigeons have often been used 

 to carry messages ; and the service which they rendered during the 

 siege of Paris, in spite of an exceedingly unfavourable season, is 

 well known. In winter, they travel with much more difficulty, and 

 find their dovecote much less easily than in spring and summer. 



ORDER OF WADING BIRDS. 



The Cranes are very large birds which visit our country 

 occasionally. They have an ashy grey plumage, and make long 



journeys. Our climate 

 is too warm for them in 

 summer, and they then 

 fly away towards the 

 North ; in the winter 

 they return towards the 

 South. Their flight is 

 strong, and they are 

 pre-eminently migratory 



birds. When they are about to start, they assemble in flocks 

 and arrange themselves in two files united in front, and 



