Characteristics of Homing Pigeons. 
2/1 
The great desideratum in a homing bird is the strength of wing and the breadth of the individual 
flight-feathers ; without this the bird is useless in any competition for speed, and is seriously 
handicapped when compelled to battle against bad weather. The first feather, counting from the 
extremity of the wing, is slightly shorter than the second, which is the longest of any, the others 
gradually diminishing in length to the tenth or last. The next set seen — still holding out the bird’s 
wing — are the secondaries, also highly important to the bird, but rather for supporting the body than 
for gaining speed in progression. The flight-feathers, from their elasticity, bend upwards at their 
tips when beaten downwards by the muscles, and thus, as it were, pushing against the air in a back- 
ward horizontal direction, force the bird horizontally forward. The bones of the wing also carry the 
smaller quill-feathers, or tertiaries, and the bastard pinion which appears at the wing-butts. When 
the bird is standing at rest the wings shquld be tucked up closely, and in nearly all healthy and 
good birds are so carried, though some people, I have heard, like to see the wings drooping a little ; 
I cannot but say they then appear to giye pne the icjea of an unhealthy or distressed bird, or of a 
very weak wing. The tips will meet, or very nearly meet, over the rump, thus forming a rough 
triangle, of which the wings are two sides, and an imaginary line joining the wing-butts across the 
breast of the bird the third. 
“ The tail has twelve feathers. It should not be too fully developed as regards breadth. As a 
rule, a small tail is regarded with greater favour than a large one, though the reason does not seem 
very obvious. In flight, the tail supports the hinder portion of the bird, and, when aljgflting, assists 
it in stopping. The pigeon then depressing its tail, the action of tfle feathers spread qut against the 
air through which it is passing, causes the fore part of the bird to be raised fropi the horizontal to 
a somewhat more perpendicular position, thus enabling the wings to press against the uir from back 
to front, instead of beating downwards as in full flight, by which means the bird stops himself 
quickly, even when in rapid flight. The tail is not likely, whether large or not, to impede a bird’s 
flight, seeing that it passes through the air in the line already taken by the body preceding it, 
which encounters the full resistance of the air. Tfle legs are rather short in some breeds — the birds 
appear to stoop, or “ skulk,” on this account — the feet small. 
“ As to the colour, there are whole Blues, Blue Chequers, whole Reds, Red Chequers, Mealies, 
Blacks, and birds splashed and mottled in every possible manner. The birds are bred for flying, 
and colour, therefore, has hitherto gone to the bad. Any bird that works well is kept and bred 
from, be its colour what it may ; for this reason, queer markings of all sorts crop up in breeding, 
and it is seldom that they will breed true to colour. 
“ Having thus seen what the subject of our consideration is ljke in outward appearance, 
we may well inquire from whence he came ? how was he bred ? what his origin ? As far as it 
can be ascertained, the present breed of homing birds was originated some sixty years ago 
in Belgium, by crossing the bird known as the pigeon Cravate Frai^aise — a bird with a very 
short beak and a frill on the front of the neck, like an Owl pigeon, in fact — with another 
variety known as the Camus, which it appears is now scarcely ever seen, but which had a 
large thick beak with a good-sized wattle round the eye, the head being small and round. Some 
authorities hold that the English Dragoon was used in the crossing by which the homing bird 
was formed ; but be that as it may, there can be no doubt that the Volant, or Cumulet — a high- 
flying pigeon chiefly bred in former years at Antwerp — has been used to throw in the habit of 
flying high, which is almost a sine qua non in a homing pigeon. From the breed thus obtained 
only the very best and fastest birds have been kept and bred from, generation after generation, 
until the present race may be considered as the very elite of homing birds, and annually prove 
their excellence in the long Belgian contests. Nearly all the birds used in England which are of 
