

TOP-KNOT PIGEON. — Lopholdimiis aiitdrcticus. 



Still, that the sense of sight is the principal element, cannot, I think, be denied. For 

 in training a bird, the instructors always take it by degrees to various distances, beginning 

 with half-a-mile or so, and ending with sixty or seventy miles in the case of really good 

 birds, which will travel from London to Manchester in four hours and a half. In foggy 

 weather the birds are often lost, even though they have to pass over short distances, and 

 when a heavy fall of snow has obliterated their landmarks and given the country an 

 uniform white coating, they are sadly trovibled in finding their way home. The fancy 

 Carrier Pigeon, with the large wattles on the beak, is said to be no very good messenger, the 

 trainers preferring the Belgian bird, with its short beak, round head, and broad shoulders. 



It is a curious, but a well ascertained fact, that the accuracy of Pigeon flight depends 

 much on the points of the compass, although each individual bird may have a different 

 idiosyncracy in this respect. Some birds, for example, always fly best in a line nearly 

 north and south, while otliers prefer east and west as their line of flight. This remarkable 

 propensity seems to indicate that the birds are much influenced by the electric or magnetic 

 currents continually traversing the eartli. When starting from a distance to reach their 

 home, these Pigeons rise to a great height, generally hover about for a while in an 



