92 PIGEONS. 



in bis efforts to do so lie is sent from pillar to post, till the intentional slowness 

 of administrative forms makes him lose heart, and he prefers to suffer his loss 

 rather than pursue a restitution surrounded with so many difficulties. 



The expense occasioned by employing a man to look after the birds will not 

 be useless, so long as the means of transport hy the railways remain so 

 uncertain. 



As a remedy for these evils Dr. Chappuis suggests that an agency be estab- 

 lished, with correspondents in the distant towns in the south of France, to 

 whom the pigeons might be consigned, and, when received, fed and liberated at 

 the desired hour. 



It may be of interest to learn the exact details of the training of the birds for 

 a long homing match, and, therefore, we have much pleasure in quoting the 

 following from a letter from Mr. Kenrick, who, writing from Bruges, states : — 

 "There is a society here that fly pigeons every year for prizes. The longest fly 

 last year was from Bayonne, on the borders of Spain : twenty-one pigeons were 

 despatched off; three only returned after some days. This year they are to be let 

 off at Bordeaux, 567 miles from Bruges. The following are the stages, and the 

 dates on which the birds are to be let off: Thourout, 11 miles from Bruges, is the 

 first stage; the birds are to be thrown on May 7. The next stage is Rumbeke, 

 21 miles, date May 10. Then follow in order, Korbryke, 32 miles, May 14; 

 Douai, 69 miles, May 20 ; Amiens, 123 miles, May 27 : Paris, 204 miles, June 3 ; 

 Blois, 317 miles, June 16; Angouleme, 484 miles, June 29; Bordeaux, 567 

 miles, date not fixed. These are the stages for mature birds. The young birds 

 bred this year will not be put in training until July, and be only flown as far as 

 from Paris." 



It appears that this programme is strong evidence in favour of the theory that 

 birds return by observation. If instinct guides the birds, why is it requisite to 

 train them by short stages of ten miles at first, the distances being rapidly 

 increased, as their observation and intelligence are developed ? Surely no bird, 

 guided by the so-called unerring power of instinct, would require to be practised 

 three stages before it could be trusted to return home sixty-nine miles. 



Again, of the twenty-one birds that were despatched last season from Bayonne, 

 how is it that only three returned to Bruges ? Were the others deficient in instinct ? 

 — a power that, as we know, does not vary in individuals of the same species. 



In 1S65 a pigeon match was flown from Liverpool to Ghent, or Gand, in 

 Belgium ; the distance in a straight line, as measured roughly on the map, is over 

 300 miles. Thirty birds competed in the race. They were all let off together at 

 half-past five in the morning. The first arrived at Ghent at ten minutes to six 

 the same evening, having flown the distance in twelve hours and twenty minutes, 

 being at the average rate of twenty-five miles an hour, supposing the bird to have 

 lost no time in starting, and to have flown in a straight line. The second arrived 

 an hour after the first, and six more returned the same evening. Eventually 

 twenty-two of the birds returned to Ghent ; eight of the thirty were lost. The 



