Pigeons Birds 
twenty miles, and then liberating it. A second time 
it is taken some forty or fifty miles away, and thus 
it is trained in the geography of the home region, 
until it will return five hundred, or even one thous- 
and miles. It is now thought pigeons travel mostly 
by sight, using river, lake and mountain as land- 
marks. The Homer, as we know it, has been devel- 
oped flargely since the siege of Paris, where it was 
used most successfully to carry news from the un- 
fortunate city. 
THE NUN THE ARCHANGEL 
Training pigeons for flight has been a favorite 
pastime for ages past; At Modena, in Italy, this 
sportiwas practiced as far back as 1327. There 
were men whose business it was to train the pigeons 
to execute complex manceuvres in the air, directing 
their performances by loud whistling, and by means 
of flags. There are also in India breeds of flying 
pigeons, which are likewise trained and directed by 
flags fastened to long bamboo rods. 
HOUSE 
Pigeons are willing to live almost anywhere. The 
old way was to keep them in cotes, which is a pigeon 
apartment house placed on a pillar so as to keep it 
free from attacks of rats and mice. Often they are 
181 
