320 
THE CARRIER. 
THE CARRIER. 
Of all the varieties of the domesticated Pigeon, this is the most 
interesting, on account of its poetical and historical associations. 
From a very remote antiquity, these birds have been employed as 
winged messengers; and they are still so to some extent, 'although the 
facilities afforded by improved postal arrangements, and, more espe- 
cially, the electric telegraph wires, have very much superseded them. 
We have vTitten evidence that, at a very early period of Roman 
history, at the celebration of the Olympic games, the names of the 
victors were made known to those at a distance by means of these 
Pigeons, just as the name of the winning horse at a race, or the 
successful champion in a prize-fight, is at the present day. 
Fuller, in his * History of the Holy Wars,' tells us that, when 
Jerusalem was besieged by the Christians, the latter ' intercepted a 
letter tied to the legs of a dove (it being the fashion of the country 
both to write and send their letters under the wings of a fowl), 
wherein the Persian Emperor promised help to the besieged.' So, 
again, at the siege of Haarlem, as related by Thuanus, when the city 
was reduced to the last extremity, and on the point of opening its 
gates to a cruel and barbarous enemy, the citizens received intel- 
ligence of a design to relieve the city, by means of a letter tied under 
the wing of a Pigeon. Examples of this kind might be multiplied 
to any extent, and lines out of number quoted referring, or addressed 
to, the Carrier Pigeon or Dove, beginning with the ode of the Greek 
poet Anacreon, which Thomas Moore has so charmingly rendered. 
We have, however, to survey our * bird messenger ' in a more prosaic 
aspect; as one of the extensive family of Fancy Pigeons. 
Most of our readers are, no doubt, familiar mth the appearance 
of the Carrier; a lithe, active-looking bird, with bluish black or 
dun plumage (the latter are called * Cinnamons,' and are least 
valued). A thorough-bred Carrier, to be perfect as a show-bird, 
must possess what are termed * the twelve points,' viz. three of the 
head, which is long, straight, and flat on the top ; three of the beak, 
which is long, straight, and thick; three of the wattle, which is 
broad at the base, short from the head to the bill, and leaning for- 
ward ; three of the eye, which is large, round, and uniform. Other 
colours besides black and dun are sometimes met with, but they are 
not much valued by fanciers, as they have almost invariably black 
eyes, which is considered a great blemish. 
The Carriers should be trained when y#ung, and always kept in 
exercise, or they will become too fat and unwieldy for sustained and 
rapid flight. The way to train them is to take them first a short 
way from home, and then loose them, gradually increasing the dis- 
tance. AVhen sure of the bird retm^ning to its breeding and feeding 
place, however great the number of miles which may intervene, it 
will be safe to entrust it with a despatch, which may be written upon 
a piece of common note paper, rolled up so that it occupies no more 
