Arnaux 
of the youngsters. The owner of the loft had 
asked me, as an unprejudiced outsider, to be 
judge in the contest. 
It was a training race of the young birds. 
They had been taken out for short distances 
with their parents once or twice, then set free 
to return to the loft. Now for the first time 
they were to be flown without the old ones. 
The point of start, Elizabeth, N. J., was a long 
journey for their first unaided attempt. “‘ But 
then,” the trainer remarked, “that ’s how we 
weed out the fools; only the best birds make 
it, and that ’s all we want back.” 
There was another side to the flight. It was 
to be a race among those that did return. 
Each of the men about the loft as well as sev- 
eral neighboring fanciers were interested in one 
or other of the Homers. They made up a 
purse for the winner, and on me was to devolve 
the important duty of deciding which should 
take the stakes. Not the first bird dack, but the © 
first bird zzZo the loft, was to win, for one that 
returns to his neighborhood merely, without 
immediately reporting at home, is of little use 
as a letter-carrier. 
74 
