288 
The Illustrated Book of Plgeons. 
somewhat of an innovation, we venture on these grounds very strongly to recommend this method 
of solving the difficulty to all committees who can find sufficient local support for it. 
It may be well to add a few words regarding the transmission of messages by Homing 
Pigeons. The popular notion as to the mode of doing this has been already sneered at by 
Mr. Harrison, and is well depicted in the tail-piece below ; it will be obvious to anyone on 
reflection that a bird thus burdened could never fly far. The message must in all cases be written 
or printed on a small, and particularly a narrow slip of paper. During the Siege of Paris, many 
messages were set up in type in columns like a page of a newspaper, and then photographed in 
microscopic size on a document about two inches long by an inch wide, which on receipt was 
enlarged by a magnifier to be copied out in writing. Such a small slip may be either wound 
closely round the shank of the leg, and then gummed on the edge to keep it there, or rolled closely 
into a small cylinder, which is then tied by a thread round each end, under and close to the quill 
of one of the middle tail-feathers. Fastened in this way, the flight of the bird is not impeded in 
the least, and thus a message may be sent for hundreds of miles. 
