THE PIGEON. 



J27 



among its other domestic habits. Two males 

 are ol'ten seen quarrelling for the same mis- 

 tress ; and when the female admits the ad- 

 dresses of a new gallant, her old companion 

 seems to bear the contempt with some marks 

 of displeasure, abstaining from her company; 

 or if he approaches, it is only to chastise her. 

 There have been instances when two males, 

 being displeased with their respective mates, 

 have thought proper to make an exchange, 

 and have lived in great harmony with their 

 new companions, 



So great is the produce of this bird in its 

 domestic state, that near fifteen thousand may, 

 in the space of four years, be produced from 

 a single pair. But the stock-dove seldom 

 breeds above twice a year ; for when the 

 winter months come, the whole employment 

 of the fond couple is rather for self-preserva- 

 tion, than transmitting a posterity. They 

 seem, however, to have a stronger attachment 

 to their young than those who are found to 

 breed so often ; whether it be that instinct 

 acts more powerfully upon them in their state 

 of nature, or that their affections are less di- 

 vided by the multiplicity of claims. 



It is from a species of these, therefore, that 

 those pigeons which are called Carriers, and 

 are used to convey letters, are produced. These 

 are easily distinguished from all others by 

 their eyes, which are compassed about with 

 a broad circle of naked white skin, and by 

 being of a dark blue or blackish colour. It 

 is from their attachment to their native place, 

 and particularly where they have brought up 

 their young, that these birds are employed in 

 several countries as the most expeditious car- 

 riers. They are first brought from the place 

 where they were bred, and whither it is in- 

 tended to send them back with information. 

 The letter is tied under the bird's wing, and 

 it is then let loose to return. The little ani- 

 mal no sooner finds itself at liberty, than its 

 passion for its native spot directs all its mo- 

 tions. It is seen, upon these occasions, fly- 

 ing directly into the clouds to an amazing 

 height; and then, with the greatest certainty 

 and exactness, directing itself, by some sur- 

 prising instinct, towards home, which lies 

 sometimes at many miles distance, bringing 

 its message to those to whom it is directed. 

 By what marks they discover the place, by 

 what chart they are guided in the right way, 

 is to us utterly unknown ; certain it is, that 

 in the space of an hour and a half they per- 

 form a journey of forty miles ; which is a 

 degree of despatch three times greater than 

 the fleetest quadruped can perform. These 

 birds are not brought up at present with as 

 much care as formerly, when they were sent 

 from governors in a besieged city to generals 

 that were coming to relieve it without ; when 



they were sent from princes to their subjects 

 with the tidings of some fortunate event ; or 

 from lovers to their mistresses with expres- 

 sions of their passion. The only use we now 

 see made of them is to be let fly at Tyburn, 

 when the cart is drawn away ; pretty much 

 as when some ancient hero was to be interred, 

 an eagle was let off from the funeral pile, to 

 complete his apotheosis. 1 



1 The Carrier Pigeon is larger than the ordinary 

 pigeon, being fifteen inches in length from the bill to 

 the tail, and weighing about twenty ounces. It is gener- 

 ally black or dun, and occasionally blue or blue piebald, 

 and has a very large cere hanging down by the sides of 

 its bill, like the male turkey. The species is supposed 

 to have been indigenous to Persia, though it is now t 

 be found in many other countries. The instinct which 

 has rendered the carrier pigeon so serviceable, is one 

 manifested, under various modifications, by many other 

 animals an instinct by which the creature, if it be- 

 comes attached to any place as a home, as a scene of 

 habitual gratification, or as the place where it has re- 

 cently brought forth young, is able to find its way thither 

 from any distance to which it may have been removed, 

 if no physical obstructions of an absolutely insurmount- 

 able character should intervene. Though the carrier 

 pigeon is naturally prompted to revert to the place of its 

 ordinary residence, man has adopted various precau- 

 tionary measures in order to make its return on particular 

 occasions more certain. A male and female are usually 

 kept together and treated well ; and one of these, when 

 taken elsewhere, is supposed to have the greater induce- 

 ment to come back. It is even considered necessary by 

 some that the bird should have left eggs in the process 

 of incubation, or unfledged young ones, at home, in order 

 to make the return certain ; but probably these are 

 superfluous precautions. It is obvious that the carrier 

 pigeon can only be put to use in conformity with some 

 contemplated plan, for which the proper preparations 

 have been made. It must have been taken from a place 

 to which it is wished that it should return, and it must, 

 at the moment when its services are wanted, be tem- 

 porarily at the place from which the intelligence is to 

 be conveyed. It is usually taken to that place hood- 

 winked, or in a covered basket: the instinct by which 

 it finds its way back upon its own wings, must of course 

 be independent of all knowledge of the intermediate loca- 

 lities. When the moment for employing it has arrived, 

 the individual requiring its services writes a small billet 

 upon thin paper, which is placed lengthwise under the 

 wing, and fastened by a pin to one of the feathers, with 

 some precautions to prevent the pin from pricking, and 

 the paper from filling with air, so as to retard and weary 

 the bird. On being released, the carrier ascends to a 

 great height, takes one or two turns in the air, and then 

 commences its forward career. According to one ac- 

 count, it can fly a thousand parasangs, or about 2700 

 English miles, in a day; but several experiments of re- 

 cent date seem to concur in establishing forty miles in 

 the hour, or about a thousand a-day, as the average 

 flight. This last computation, we may remark, gives 

 inferior results to some which have been ascertained in 

 reference to other birds. The common swift has been 

 known to fly sixty, and the wild duck ninety, miles in 

 an hour. A swallow was once found to traverse twenty 

 miles in thirteen minutes. 



Allusions to carrier pigeons are very frequent in the 

 ancient classic writers, and in the Arabic poets. Ana- 

 creon informs us that he held a correspondence with his 

 lovely Bathillus by means of a dove. It is related by 

 ^Elian, that Taurosthenes, a victor in the Olympic 

 games, dispatched a pigeon stained with purple, to an- 



