Birds as Messengers 



the shortage of paper, what about crossing 

 these birds with cockatoos and teaching them 

 to deliver verbal messages ? " (Globe, 

 3i.v.i8). On another occasion, during an 

 engagement on a big scale, a certain Head- 

 quarters Staff was very anxiously awaiting 

 news. For a long while none came. Then 

 a PIGEON flew into sight, circled several 

 times, and alighted on a roof. A man was 

 sent to catch it. He brought down the 

 packet containing the message. The Staff 

 gathered round the officer who took the mes- 

 sage. They listened with intense eagerness 

 to learn the news. What the officer read out 

 was : " I am fed up with this blasted bird " 

 (Daily Mail, I4.iii.i8). This story, when 

 brought to the attention of the War Office, 

 provoked an encomium of our Pigeon Ser- 

 vice, which, it was said by the officer in 

 charge, had proved invaluable, the birds 

 frequently homing through gas clouds and 

 barrage after all other means of communica- 

 tion had failed. All the birds were presented 

 to the service from the finest strains of long- 

 distance pedigree stock, and the majority of 



15 



