BY WILLIAM G. BARTON. 79 



society. The distance from the starting point to each 

 owner's loft is determined, and on the eve of the race, the 

 birds, marked with their owners' name or number, are 

 sent to the rooms of a committee, and there again marked 

 with a cipher unknown to the owners. They are sent by 

 rail with attendants to the starting point. When they 

 are released the time is carefully taken, and various means 

 are adopted to ascertain and verify the time of each bird's 

 arrival at its home. In regard to the speed of these birds, 

 Tegetmeier maintains that they can fly at the rate of three 

 miles a minute. A pigeon has been known to make a 

 journey in eight hours at an average speed of forty-five 

 miles an hour. A French writer chose from the official 

 reports of 300 great races the times of twenty-one birds, 

 the circumstances of whose flight were particularly favor- 

 able for his purpose. The slowest of these, according to 

 his estimate, flew 867 yards per minute, the three next 

 to the fastest about 1440 yards, the very fastest 1780 

 yards. The journey of the latter occupied four and three 

 fourths hours. A mile a minute for nearly five hours ! 

 Even this speed is greatly exceeded in short flights. 



In 1865, thirty birds were flown from Liverpool to 

 Ghent, 300 miles; they were liberated at 5.30 A. M., the 

 first arriving at 5.50 that evening, after twelve hours and 

 twenty minutes, averaging twenty-five miles an hour. 

 Eight returned the same day ; eight never returned. 



In 1868, 1507 birds were liberated, July 18, 5 A. M. 

 at Ageii, about 500 miles from Brussels. The prizes, 

 including those offered by the king, amounted to 19,000 

 francs. The following morning at 6.04, the first pigeon 

 arrived, and the 216th came in at 10.30 the day after. 



The longest race overflown was from Rome to Belgium 

 in 1868. 200 pigeons were liberated on July 22, at 4.30 



