The Working Homer 
When Paris was menaced with a siege, 
M. La Perre de Roo, an ornithologist, urged 
upon the military authorities the necessity 
of sending all the trained pigeons possible 
from the proyincial towns to the capital. 
The authorities, as is usual, sneered, but 
notwithstanding that some eight hundred 
pigeons were brought into Paris, and they 
proved invaluable for transmitting news 
from the capital. But the news from the 
provinces was now the question, no pigeons 
having been taken out of Paris to the 
other towns. This difficulty was overcome 
by the strange device of taking out pigeons 
capital. 
in the balloons which left the 
There were sixty-four 
balloons in all, and of 
these sixty-three took 
out consignments of 
pigeons. Thus direct 
communication from 
inside and out was 
secured. 
Pigeons are utilised 
to a great extent for 
more pacific purposes 
than the foregomg. In 
this and other countries 
they carry newspaper 
copy, they convey 
messages from apatient 
to his doctor, transmit 
instructions to and from 
branch business houses, 
furnish news cuttings to 
residents in out-of-the- tyr HOLDER OF THE LONGEST DISTANCE RECORD. 
way places, and a 
hundred other things. In times past they 
were occupied in reporting the state of 
the stock markets, and they are still used 
by pilots to report the arrival of overdue 
vessels, and by owners of fishing smacks 
on the French and Scottish coasts to bring 
news of the haul of fish. Messrs. Hartley 
and Sons, of Woolwich, use homers very 
extensively as carriers of newspaper copy. 
The message is written on “tissue” paper 
and tied to the bird’s leg or one of the 
tail feathers, and it is said that one pigeon 
can easily carry as much MB&8., closely 
written on this thin paper, as would fill a 
297 
column of the “Times.” An electric bell is 
made to ring as soon as a pigeon arrives 
with a message, and thus they answer all 
the purposes of a private telegraph. 
The ~speed of the homing pigeon is 
a most interesting study, and to the un- 
initiated appears practically impossible. In 
1883 there was a grand toss at Calvi, in 
Corsica. The distance the 600 odd pigeons 
had to fly to their homes in Belgium was 
649 miles, and they were tossed at 4.30 in 
the morning, a lght wind from the west 
blowing. The 649 miles included, be it 
noted, 90 miles of the Mediterranean. The 
start was a grand one, the water passage 
being effected under 
excellent conditions, 
and the course shaped 
over Monaco and up 
through the centre of 
France. Durmg the 
journey the wind 
increased in violence 
from the north-west, 
but notwithstanding 
this a good result was 
obtained. The first 
bird home arrived at 
3.16 p.m. on the second 
day after toss, at 
Verviers. It had flown 
nearly 27 hours at an 
average speed of 607 
yards per minute, or 
10 yards per second. 
Taking into considera- 
tion the length of the 
fly, the speed may be taken as remarkable, 
though greater speeds for shorter distances 
are, of course, frequently obtaimed. On 
June 24th, 1888, at Perigneux, a concours 
organised by the fanciers of Paris, the rate 
of speed per minute of the first ten pigeons 
was 1,202 yards; and on the 30th Sep- 
tember of the same year, in rainy weather, 
the fly from Lille to Paris was at the rate 
of 1,378 yards per minute. When you 
carefully study these speeds, and remember 
that they approximate the speeds of express 
trains, also considering the great amount of 
air-resistance and the prevalence of high 
