THE PARIS PIGEON POST. 219 



France. Our atmosphere is damp and foggy and our country 

 HUy, intercepting the view of the birds, whilst on the Con- 

 tinent the country is flat and the air singularly clear. In 

 Belgium thousands of birds will be entered for a single 

 race, and every fourth man is deeply interested in the sport, 

 which is subsidised by Government and by leading men, 

 whUe the railways afford special facilities for the thousands 

 of panniers which pass to and fro. Many pigeons are also 

 kept in training for military purposes, and the regular pigeon 

 post which carried letters into beleaguered Paris is well remem- 

 bered. In this case the birds were sent out of the city at every 

 opportunity or by balloons. The messages were collected, set 

 up in type in four columns like a newspaper, and photo- 

 graphed on a film of collodion about one inch by two, or on 

 fine paper, which was rolled up and placed in a small quill, the 

 quill being tied by the ends to the stem of one of the centre 

 feathers of the tail. On receipt the messages were deciphered 

 by a microscope and written out for transmission, one of the 

 small slips described holding several hundred of them, the fees 

 (at a regular tariff of a franc per word) costing over £100. 



In England pigeons have been employed for carrying mes- 

 sages from light-ships to the shore, and racing has made great 

 strides of late years. As a rule, the longest distances available 

 are from such towns as Berwick or Newcastle to London or 

 Brighton ; but occasionally races take place across the Channel 

 from Paris or other cities further inland. 



Observation has shown that the greatest speed for the whole 

 of a race is about a mile per minute. This is very rarely 

 attained, the average being only half that. On the other hand, 

 as this necessarily includes some rest, it is plain the actual 

 speed must be even greater ; and, in fact, short distances are 

 done at a greater rate. 



The introduction of long-distance races has revolutionised 

 pigeon-flying in England. No doxibt the old style of public 



