1 24 that's it ; 



The carrier pigfgon has been known and cele- 

 brated from the most remote antiquity, and its 

 use as a messenger is repeatedly celebrated by 

 the poets of Arabia, Greece, and Rome. Nor is 

 it confined to them, for the historians make 

 frequent allusions to it as in some instances car- 

 rying intelligence with wonderful rapidity, and 

 in others in performing the same office where 

 hostile armies, or other impediments, prevented 

 communication along the ground. ^Elian men- 

 tions that, when Taurosthenes was victor at the 

 Olympic games, a carrier pigeon bore the tidings 

 to his father with wonderful celerity. As a 

 contrast to this use of the carrier among the 

 ancient Greeks, it may be mentioned that, at no 

 very remote period, carrier pigeons were em- 

 ployed in England to convey intelligence of the 

 result of games of a very different kind. In 

 the times alluded to, Tyburn was the place of 

 execution for the British metropolis ; and, in 

 consequence of the wretched state of the police 

 in town, and the total absence of anything like 

 police in the country, Tyburn was kept pretty 

 constantly at work. It not unfrequently hap- 

 pened, too, that, though the punishment of 

 death was awarded, it was not really intended 

 to inflict more than the disgrace of being drawn 

 on the hurdle from Newgate to Tyburn, or, per- 

 haps, in addition to this, a longer or shorter 

 imprisonment. Hence, pardons and respites 

 were very frequently given at the foot of the 

 gibbet ; and the relations of the criminals, who, 

 in the days of daring highwaymen, were often 

 persons in comparatively elevated positions, 

 naturally felt great anxiety for the fate of the 

 condemned. Hence they used to have some 

 one there with a carrier pigeon, and the instant 

 the result was known, that pigeon was let off, 

 and winged its way at the rate of twenty or 

 thirty miles an hour. 



But these extraordinary birds have been used 

 for the purposes of commerce as well as for 

 those of war ; and, when the Turkey Company 

 of England was flourishing, and a number of 

 English merchants were resident at Aleppo, the 

 grand emporium of the trade, carrier pigeons 

 were employed to bring intelligence from the 

 port to the city. Scanderoon, the port of* 

 Aleppo, is distant about eighty miles as the 

 pigeon flies. The pigeon could bring intelli- 

 gence over this distance in not much more than 

 three hours, while it could not come by any 

 other channel in much less than the same 

 number of days. Thus, those merchants who 

 employed pigeons could, upon the arrival of ships, 

 obtain information which they had abundant 

 time to turn to advantage. One case is men- 

 tioned, upon authority, where a merchant 

 killed one of these pigeons by accident, and 

 learned from the billet which it bore that there 

 was a great scarcity of galls in England. Taking 

 advantage of this, and buying up nearly the 

 whole quantity in the market, he at once 

 cleared a sum which, in those days, was consi- 

 dered an ample fortune.* 



of their bodies, is greater than 

 that required by any other birds. 

 For the most part they feed upon 

 small animals, birds, and insects, 

 w*hich they generally catch upon 

 the ground, or in bushes ; but 



• 17 .'. » 



428. 



some of the larger owls attack 

 grouse and birds of considerable 

 size, pursuing them on the wing 

 during the day. Owls breed in 

 fissures of rocks, in old buildings, 

 or in holes of trees, the female 

 laying from two to six eggs ; and 

 they are found in every part of 

 the globe. 



If this useful bird caught its food by day, 

 instead of by night, mankind would be able to 

 witness its utility in thinning the country of 

 mice ; and it would be protected and encouraged 

 everywhere. When it has young, it will bring 

 a mouse to the nest every ten or twelve minutes. 

 Near the habitation of an owl there were found 

 more than a bushel of skeletons of mice, which 

 had been collected in a little more than a year. 

 When farmers complain that the barn owl de- 

 stroys the eggs of pigeons, they impute blame 

 wrongfully. They ought to charge it to the rat. 

 Formerly I could get very few young pigeons 

 till rats were excluded effectually from the dove- 

 cot. Since that took place, it has produced a 

 great abundance every year, though the barn 

 owl frequents it, and is encouraged all round 

 it. The barn owl merely resorts to it for repose 

 and concealment. If it were really an enemy 

 to the dove-cot, we should seethe pigeons in 

 commotion as soon as it begins its evening 

 flight ; but they heed it not ; whereas, if the 



- \ Owls, 1 7, are nocturnal (nightly) 

 birds of prey ; and it js said that 

 the quantity of fooS they con- 

 sume, in proportion to the weight 



* Partington's British Cyclopaedia. 



