216 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
troublesome to farmers came to light, proving the 
innocent turtle-dove to have been a valuable friend 
instead of an enemy. 
“ There are more than twenty varieties of the 
domestic pigeon, and the most celebrated of these is 
the carrier pigeon, who was first trained to act as a 
flying post-office by a Turkish sultan in the twelfth 
century. ‘At present these birds are only kept by 
some persons as a curiosity, much time and attention 
being required to train them properly. As soon as 
the young are fledged, a cock and a hen-bird are 
made as tame as possible, and accustomed to each 
other’s society. They are then sent in an uncovered 
cage to the place whither they are usually to carry 
messages. If one of them should be lost or carried 
-away after having been well treated for some time, 
it will certainly return to its mate. A small letter is 
written on the finest kind of thin paper, then placed 
lengthwise under one wing or fastened to the leg.’ 
One of these pigeons was known to have flown 
seventy-two miles in two hours and a half. From 
the instant of its liberation its flight is directed 
through the clouds, at an amazing height, to its 
home. By a wonderful sort of instinct it darts on- 
ward in a straight line to the very spot whence it 
was taken ; but how it can direct its flight so unerr- 
ingly it seems impossible to discover. 
