1G8 Pigeons and All About Them. 



home. Certain it is that sight alone cannot be tiie 

 dominant faculty, because birds that have only been 

 trained 200 miles in a given direction have been sent 

 500 and 600 miles, and "homed" successfully. I 

 myself, on one occasion, jumped a bird from 200 to 

 400 miles, and he won a long way in front of the 501 

 other birds in the race ; and again on one occasion, 

 in a 600-mile race, one of my birds was jumped from 

 200 miles to 600, and was 2nd in the race. Sight 

 alone could not do this. My own opinion is that 

 the only reasonable and natural explanation of the 

 homing power is that the training through which the 

 birds go develops some natural power wthich is in- 

 herited, and that the greatest factor of all is reason- 

 ing power. It must ever be remembered that unless 

 a bird is trained it has not the power to home, but 

 is like a rudder-less ship on the open sea — helpless. 



In training, the birds are first of all allowed to 

 view the surrounding country' from the top of their 

 loft, then after a few weeks' flying round the loft 

 they are taken about half a mile from home and 

 "tossed" ; the next stage is a mile, then three, then 

 five, from five to ten, ten to twenty', twenty to thirty- 

 five or forty, then seventy or seventy-five, the suc- 

 ceeding stages being 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, and 

 after that any distance up to 600 or 700 miles. Races 

 of 700 miles and over are not frequent, and are in- 

 variably productive of great losses. The speed at 

 Avhich a Homing Pigeon will travel is controlled by 

 the state of the atmosphere. \A%en it is bright and 

 clear, with a fair amount of moisture in the air, and 

 the wind favourable, birds will travel at any speed 

 from 1,200 yards to a mile per minute; but when it 

 is hot, with a dry atmosphere and not much wind, 

 1,000 yards per minute is good work; again, when 

 the weather is stormy, and the wind against them, 

 anything from 600 to qoo yards per minute is good 

 work. Birds which can fly for fourteen or sixteen 

 hours and do 700 or Soo yards per yards per minute 

 on a bad da^'. are the most highly esteemed, because 

 on such a daj' is brought out not only the bird's 

 reasoning powers, but also its powers of endurance. 



