February 4, 1892] 



NATURE 



from the homing pigeons, les pigeons voyageurs, of 

 Belgium, in which country the sport of pigeon racing 

 has been carried on for many years, and has attained 

 ts highest development. Pigeon races, in which thou- 

 -ands of birds are engaged, take place annually from 

 the south of France, a distance of five hundred miles, to 

 Brussels and the neighbouring parts of Belgium. The 

 birds are characterized by a well-developed brain, hard, 



With a strong adverse wind their progress is necessarily 

 slow compared with what it is when the wind is in 

 their favour, but the rate of the winners may be taken 

 from eight hundred to thirteen or fourteen hundred 

 yards per minute. In favourable weather the races from 

 the south of France to Brussels are usually accomplished 

 by the winners in one day, the pigeons never flying after 

 eight o'clock in the evening, the birds being liberated at 



20 EM}PJ£'..i 



Fig. 2.'— Chart showing the System op Military Pigeo.n Posts in the Continental Kingdoms. 



France: i, Mont Valerien; 2, Paris; 3, Vincennes; 4, Lille; 5, Dotiai; 6, Valenciennes; 7, Maubeuge ; 8, Mtfzieres ; 9, Verdun; 10, Toul 



II, Langres ; 12, Belfort ; 13, Besangon; 14, Lyon; 15, Marseille; t6, Perpignan]; 17, Grenoble; 18, Brian^on. 

 Portugal: 1, Lisbon ne ; 2, Porto; 3, Valence; 4, Chaves; 5, Bragance: 6, Almeida; 7, Guarda; 8, Coirobre ; 9, CasteJlo Branco ; 10, Abrantes 



11, Elvas ; 12, Peniche ; 13, Beja; 14, Lagos. 



Espagne: I.Madrid; 2, Figueras ; 3, laca ; 4, Pamplona; 5, Oyarsun ; 6, Ferrol ; 7, Ciudad-Rodrigo ; S, Badajoz ; 9, Tarifa ; 10, Ceuta; ii,Melilla 



12, Paima ; 13, Mahon ; 14, Zaragoza ; 14, Valladolid ; 16, Cordoba; 17, Malaga; 18, Valencia. 



PALIE : 1, Rome; 2, Ancone ; 3. Boulogne; 4, Verone ; 5, Plaisance ; 6, Alexandrie ; 7, Mont Cenis; 8, Fenestrelle ; 9, Exiles; 10, Vinadio 

 II, La Maddalena ; 12, Cagliari ; 13, Gaeta ; 14, Genova. 

 -Suisse : i. Thun ; 2, B.ale ; 3, Zurich ; 4, Weesen. 

 -\llemagnk: I, Berlin; 2, Cologne ; 3, Metz ; 4, Mayence; 5, Wurtzbourg ; 6, Strasbourg ; 7, Schwetzingen (en projet); 8, VVilhelmshaven : 9, Tonning 



10, Kiel ; II, Stettin ; 12, Dantzig; 13, Koenigsberg ; 14, Thorn; 15, Posen; 16, Breslau ; i7.Torgau. 

 Autrichk : I, Coniorn ; 2, Cracovie ; 3, Franzenfeste : 4, Karlsburg ; 5, Serajewo ; 6, Mostar ; 7, Trieste. 

 Danemark: I, Copenhague. 

 -^l'eue: Carlsborg._ 

 ^•jssie: I, Brest-Litovsk ; 2, Varsovie ; 3, Novo-Georgievsk ; 4, Ivangorod ; 5, Luninetz. 



firm plumage, great breadth of the primary and secondary 

 flight feathers, and large pectoral muscles. Fig. i is an 

 accurate portrait of a homing pigeon formerly in my 

 possession that had repeatedly flown from the south of 

 France to Brussels. Their rate of flight, for long dis- 

 tances, depends, of course, greatly on the weather. 



' We are enabled by the courtesy of the editor of La Nature to reproduce 

 ihis map. 



NO. I 162, VOL. 45] 



daylight in the morning. Fog and mist, hiding the sur- 

 face of the country, are fatal to rapid progress. 



It is sometimes alleged that sight can be of no avail 

 when birds are liberated some hundreds of miles from 

 their home, but it should be remembered that from an 

 elevated position in the atmosphere immense distances 

 can be seen. Mr. Glaisher records that from a balloon he 

 saw at the same time the cliffs of Margate on the west, 



