The Feather's Practical Pigeon Book. 



fad for pigeon flying is not a mdderti idea. As long 

 as pigeons have been kept for. pets, a certain portion of 

 the fanciers have foUnd recreation in training individual 

 families as flyers, until the fatolty fpr'flyifig long and 

 high has been fixed in these particular varieties atid now 

 the quality is transmitted from parent to offspring, and 

 all that is necessary is the practice to develop it.' 



History informs us that all the nations of Asia and 

 portions of Africa have used pigeons as a means of com- 

 munication from time immemorial. The Turks, the 

 Greeks, and the Romans were all lovers of the spOrt, 

 and there is no question but what they used Carriers, as 

 they were then called, for conveying messages from one 

 section to another while their armies were in rnotion. 

 An old song tells of a warrior wounded in battle seiid- 

 ing a message to his love, and he apostrophizes the bird 

 in this manner: 



"Fly away to my native land, sweet bird, 



Fly away to my native land ; 

 And bear these lines to my lady-love, 



I have traced, with . a feeble hand. 

 She marvels niuch at my long delay, 



A rumor of death she has heard, 

 Or she thinks, perhaps, I have falsely strayed; 



Fly away to her bower, sweet bird." 



Pliny tells us that when Decimus Junius Brutus was 

 besieged in Mu'.ina forty-three years B. C. by Mark 

 Anthony, and the Roman consuls, Heirtius apd Pansa, 

 came to raise the siege, Brutus communicated with the 

 consuls by pigeons that flew over the heads of the be- 

 siegers, thus setting at naught the blockade so securely 

 established. It is also said that a certain Mohanimedan 

 ruler of Syria and Egypt, one Nour-ed-deen Mahinoud 

 who reigned between the years 1145 and 1174 A. D., had 

 a systematic pigeon postal service from his residence 



