[42 Fancy Pigeons. 



years passed, ivhen a friend came on a visit from Ledbury, Hereford- 

 shire. This friend saw my Autwerps, and expressed a wish for a pair or 

 two to breed for table use. After liis leaving for home I caught three 

 pairs all bred in my loft (Antwerp loft, for with them I have nothing else) . 

 They were put into a box (not a basket or cage), and addressed to a 

 mutual friend in Manchester, as they could not reach Ledbury in one day 

 from Glasgow. They reached Manchester in the evening, were re-booked 

 for Ledbury next morning, and reached their destination that evening ; 

 but until then were not taken out of the box in which I had placed them. 

 Defore sending the birds away I pulled the flight feathers ont of the 

 right wing of each bird, and my instructions were, ' Keep them confined 

 with such a netting as will let them see the locahty, till they have each 

 a nest of young ones, and are sitting upon theu- second eggs.' Those 

 instructions were rigidly adhered to. One night the netting was removed 

 according to instructions, and the birds were at liberty next morning. A 

 man was set to watch. The cocks took sundry short flights, and by and 

 by relieved their mates occupied in incubation ; the hens came out, and 

 at once took wing. The date now I cannot give precisely — let me call it 

 the 18th of July. On the morning of the 20th I had a letter from my 

 friend, dated the day before (the 19th), saying, ' The birds were yesterday 

 morning let out, but two of them have not returned. I am afraid they 

 are lost.' While in the act of reading my friend's letter, my man who 

 attends to those birds came into my ofBce saying, ' I think two of Mr. 



's birds are back.' Scarcely believing him, I went out into the yard, 



and there certainly were two of the hens I had sent to Ledbury. 



"Now, I can tell to a mile the distance between Glasgow and Ledbury, 

 Herefordshire, by railway ; but I will let our readers measure the distance 

 as the crow flies, and decide whether or not this is a very long flight. 

 Mark, first, those birds had never been trained ; second, they had never 

 been in the hands of anyone till caught by me, when I pulled the flight 

 feathers from one wing of each bird. These birds would leave their 

 cote at Ledbury about 10 or 11 a.m. on the 18th, and as I did not 

 know what day or week they were to be set at liberty, of course I did 

 not expect them, and at aU events I certainly did not expect they would 

 at any time return to Glasgow on the wing. For all I know they may 

 have reached on the evening of the 18th or during the day of the 19th. 

 Two months after this I gave a pair to a friend in Paisley — a pair of 



