WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



is the case of homing-pigeons. These pigeons are 

 very strong of wing, and their intelligence is cul- 

 tivated to a high degree; for their peculiar "gift" 

 has been made use of since time immemorial. The 

 principle of heredity, therefore, now acts with much 

 force; nevertheless, each young bird must be sub- 

 jected to severe training in order to fit it for those 

 arduous competitions which annually take place 

 among first-rate birds. As soon as the fledgling 

 is fairly strong on its wings, it is taken a few miles 

 from the cot and released. It rises into the air, 

 looks about, and starts straightaway for home. 

 There is no mystery about this at all ; when it has 

 attained the height of a few yards the bird can see 

 its cot, and full of that strong love of home which 

 is so characteristic of its wild ancestors, the blue- 

 rocks, it hastens back to the society of its mates. 

 The next day the trial distance is doubled, and the 

 third day is still further increased, until in a few 

 weeks it will return from a distance of seventy miles, 

 which is all that a bird-of-the-year is "fit" to do; 

 and when two years old will return from two hun- 

 dred miles, longer distances being left to more 

 mature birds. But all this training must be in a 

 continuous direction ; if the first lesson was towards 

 the east, subsequent lessons must also be; nor can 



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