TURKISH OR MAWMET PIGEON. 
165 
of its superior claim to the title in dispute, as it is 
the excessive development of this instinctive feeling 
that urges the Carrier, when transported from its na- 
tive habitation, even to a distance of many hundred 
miles, to wing its way back without stop or delay, 
the moment it is uncaged and set at liberty. Its 
flight is also very rapid and generally at a high ele- 
vation, particularly when employed as a messenger, 
and at a great distance from home. Upon such oc- 
casions its first essay is to attain a high altitude by 
a series of circular evolutions. This accomplished, 
it instinctively darts off in the direction of its native 
home, as if guided by the compass, and acquainted 
with the true beatings of the place it seeks to re- 
gain. 
The pigeon, and we may presume the variety, 
thus adverted to by MM. Boitard and Corbie, as' to 
it may be refeiTed all the figures depictured in the 
monnments of the ancient sculptors, representing 
Venus as attended or dratvn in a car by doves, has 
from the earliest ages been employed as a messenger 
to convey information between distant points, where 
unwonted celerity and despatch were required. Thus 
we read of it as conveying the ’welcome intelligence 
of succour and relief to besieged cities, of battles 
lost or won ; and in the poetry and tales of the East, 
it is frequently described as the appropriate bearer 
of a lover’s vows to his distant mistress. Even at 
the present day, it is still employed where extraor- 
dinary despatch is reqnired, and in Holland, France 
