Birds as Messengers 



cost of the transaction would probably have 

 been more than the birds would have realised. 

 They were therefore sold at Courtrai, Lille, 

 and other places in France and Belgium, and 

 the proceeds of sale divided among charitable 

 institutions, in accordance with the wish of 

 the breeders who gave the birds to the 

 country for the war (Daily Mail, g.iv. 



The HOMING PIGEON has been ridiculously 

 libelled during the war, for no spy melodrama 

 or novelette has been complete without one 

 or more of these attractive birds, which are 

 invariably represented as working for the 

 Germans. Ever since the original war story 

 of the market-woman of Armentieres, or 

 Arras, or Rheims (it is told by veracious 

 eye-witnesses of all these towns and many 

 more) whose figure attracted the attention 

 of the alert soldiery and whose bust flew 

 away when they arrested her, the HOMING 

 PIGEON has laboured under a load of sus- 

 picion (Daily Express, is.v.iS). As a matter 

 of fact, it may safely be said that His Majesty 

 had no more devoted, though unwitting, ser- 



21 



