Utility and Economy of Birds 



motor lofts were extensively employed. The 

 PIGEONS were taken by bicyclists in wicker 

 crates to the front-line trenches, where they 

 proved of the greatest use ; particularly 

 when the telegraph and telephone wires had 

 been cut by shell fire, and when it became 

 impossible for the intrepid "runners" to 

 bring back messages on foot. Pigeon-post 

 messages when written and folded are carried 

 in a cup placed in a small cylindrical carrier 

 of aluminium clipped to the bird's leg. The 

 PIGEON on returning to one of the latest type 

 of lofts, hearing its mate calling inside, finds 

 its way to a ledge under the window fitted with 

 hinged wires that only open inwards. Push- 

 ing through these, the bird's weight presses 

 on the lightly balanced interior platform, 

 completing an electric circuit and so ringing 

 a bell, which warns the attendant in his 

 dug-out of the arrival of a messenger. Some 

 of the longest distances flown in the war 

 were 300 miles, and one female PIGEON flew 

 1 66 sea-miles three weeks in succession with 

 despatches from the North Sea. Usually the 

 birds fly these long distances about once a 



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