CALCULATIONS ON FLIGHT PIGEON FLYING. 169 



of even ninety miles in three hours. A dragoon has 

 flown seventy-six miles in two hours and a half: 

 this ancient fancy of flying pigeons had declined, 

 but has, it seems, revived within a few years. The 

 admired qualities in the TUMBLER are excessive high 

 flight, so as to be almost imperceptible to the keen- 

 est eye, in fine and clear weather; perseverance in 

 their flight for many hours together, and tumbling 

 over and over repeatedly during their ascent and 

 descent. 



Whatever benefit or utility may have been derived, 

 in ancient days, from these winged messengers, it is 

 probable the moderns reap no other benefit from 

 them than that of amusement and the gratification 

 of curiosity, by flying them for prizes and betting. 

 Scarcely, however, is there a great race or great fistic 

 contest at a distance from the metropolis, but a profit- 

 able use is said to be made by pigeon-flyers, in sending 

 instant intelligence of the result to their confederates 

 in town. But after all, this appears, with perhaps a 

 few exceptions, to have been from the beginning a 

 regularly repeated hoax ; and such is the opinion of 

 a late writer in the Sporting Magazine. The prac- 

 tice, nevertheless, of flying pigeons between this 

 country and the continent, has revived within the three 

 or four last years, and has been frequently repeated. 

 It is pretended, that speedy intelligence is thus kept 

 up between London and Rotterdam, on the course of 

 exchanges. 



In 1825, the Society of Amateurs at Antwerp 

 sent ninety carriers to Paris, to fly for a prize. 

 They were started from the French capital at seven 



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