266 Fancy Pi^eotis. 



to Bordeanx (310 miles) and to Bayonne (410 miles), and the oldest of 

 them have been sent last year to Biarritz (120 miles). I know the bird* 

 well, as they all descend from birds I got myself tor him from MM. 

 Georges d'Hanis and Georges Gits, the two most successful fanciers of 

 Antwerp." These birds are all blues, excepting one, which is a light 

 blue chequer. They are so much alike that it is only a fancier who could 

 distinguish the slight differences between them, and then it can only be 

 done after some days' close observation. They appear, whatever their 

 composition may be, to be a mixture of dragoon and tumbler. They 

 have the blue-grey eye-wattles, the red eyes, and short flights of the 

 dragoon. There is a wild look about them, quite different from what 

 pigeons otherwise exactly like them have, and they are always hanging 

 about the bolting wires of their loft, evidently in a hurry to be off. 



The following was published in the Fanciers' Chronicle of 20th August, 

 1880, and was noticed also in the Field and other papers : "Wonderful 

 performance of a homer. — In February last year I bought from Mr. 

 Mills, Brussels, some homing pigeons. On Sunday, the 8th instant, I 

 gave one of these birds its liberty, and it disappeared. I thought no 

 more of it, but on Thursday last I was surprised to receive from Mr. 

 Mills a letter, saying that the bird reached his loft on Wednesday 

 morning. I send you this information as I consider this a most marvellous 

 performance, the bird having been in confinement many months, and had 

 to travel over about four hundred miles of country which it had never 

 seen. The pigeon in question is a three-year old blue-chequer hen, and 

 will be again in my possession to-night or to-morrow morning, Mr. Mills 

 having sent it off yesterday. — James P. Tatlok, Moss Croft, Gateshead- 

 on-Tyne." 



This is a record of a truly wonderful performance, one similar to that 

 which was accomplished by the birds of Mr. Huie, of Glasgow. Training 

 brings out the natural homing powers of these pigeons, but that they do 

 not fly by sight alone, the above proves. And in training for the long' 

 Continental matches the final stages often exceed a hundred miles, over 

 which the best birds fly straight home. What guides them on their way r 

 It is best described poetically in the verse which heads Mr. Huie's paper 

 already transcribed. 



Although some of the foregoing ought properly to have appeared under 

 the head of the Antwerp carrier, rather than omit it, I give it here, 



