72 Poachers and Poaching. 



three hundred "kilometres, and older tried birds 

 at six hundred to eight hundred kilometres. 

 These, of course, are average measurements, and 

 are varied according to circumstance. The 

 percentage of losses naturally increases with 

 increasing distance. In long flights the birds 

 meet with innumerable hindrances ; rain, hail, 

 fog, wind, and thunderstorms not only impede 

 their flight, but often affect their wonderful 

 sense of locality and direction. The birds are 

 remarkably sensitive to electricity, so that 

 thunderstorms are peculiarly baffling to them, 

 and large forests, great extents of water, and 

 ranges of mountains influence and alter the 

 upper air currents, by the direction of which the 

 pigeons, taught by some marvellous " instinct," are 

 able to steer their course. The average speed 

 of a pigeon is reckoned at a kilometre a minute, 

 and on this basis, and taking into consideration 

 the time of year, length of daylight, weather, 

 &c., calculations are made of the distance a 

 pigeon can be sent. In summer, when daylight 

 begins at half-past three in the morning and 

 lasts till half-past eight at night, a trained pigeon 

 can fly about one thousand kilometres in a day, 

 while on a foggy November day, when the day- 

 light begins late and darkness comes on early, 

 the same bird cannot accomplish more than four 

 hundred kilometres. One great drawback 

 hitherto attendant on the use of pigeons has 



