The 
Racing Pigeon. 
(7 8 ) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
Next is “ Lytham Bravo,” which won ist and 
R.P. Cup from Gloucester in last year’s young- 
bird race of the North-West Lancashire Federa¬ 
tion, 3,417 birds competing, velocity 1,093; ist 
and special, Lytham H.S., and ist, West Coast 
Flying Club. Then we give a photo of the 
bird which won ist and R.P. Cup at the 1904 
Dairy Show, for birds flown 100 miles. We 
also give the winner of the ist prize at the 1904 
Dairy Show in the class for “ likeliest bird for 
flying purposes.” In addition, and by no means 
last and least, we give an excellent photograph 
of “ Her Majesty,” which is claimed to have the 
longest distance 
champion record of 
Great Britain,having 
flown 854 miles; 
and of “ Lytham 
Wonder,” a dark 
blue chequer with a 
marvellous record. 
A Wonderful Flyer. 
When one year 
old this pigeon flew 
from Bordeaux to 
Lytham, a distance 
of 622 miles, in the 
National Flying 
Club race, and it 
holds the record for 
the longest distance 
flown into Eng¬ 
land by a yearling 
bird. She has, be¬ 
sides, many other 
good records, which 
space will not permit 
me to give here. 
The progress of 
the sport in these 
islands has been 
phenomenal. From 
what was purely 
local flying, the 
pigeon-racing o f 
Great Britain has 
developed into a 
national sport, and 
flies from the Conti¬ 
nent are now the 
1889 ^ was thought very bold of the Lancashire 
Flying Club to arrange for Rennes, La Rochelle 
and Bordeaux races, distances of 370, 510 and 
610 miles respectively, but such things are by no 
means unusual in these days. Until 1889, the 
longest distance covered into Lancashire had 
been from La Rochelle, and into Yorkshire 540 
miles from the same place. It was a bird be- 
longing to Mr. C. Mills which did this fly. The 
liberation took place at 5.14 a.m. on July 22nd, 
1889, and Mr. Mills’s bird was reported home on 
August ist. The Lancashire F.C. birds were 
liberated at Bordeaux on August 6th at 5 a.m. 
and the first pigeon, belonging to Mr. Jesse 
Farr, of Rochdale, arrived on the 15th, having 
Blue Chequer Flying Homer. 
(ist and Cup, Dairy Show, 1904.) 
order of the day. In 
covered 613 miles. This valiant bird was five 
years old, and it returned to its loft shot in the 
wing and the body. 
Difficulties to Overcome. 
In order that my readers may understand some 
of the conditions of pigeon-racing, and the diffi¬ 
culties to be overcome, I now give an extract 
from a letter from Mr. J. W. Logan to the 
“ Homing News,” written in 1889 :—“ My idea,” 
he says, “ is that the chief reason for the enor¬ 
mous losses in the races from France is that the 
baskets are filled with a large proportion of 
' ___ young,inexperienced 
birds; and I cannot 
help thinking that 
before better aver¬ 
age results are ob¬ 
tained, our fanciers 
must clearly under¬ 
stand that unless 
blown home by a 
tail wind, not one 
inexperienced bird 
of every 25 sent is 
capable of doing 400 
miles in one day, and 
that to get the best 
results, men must 
have patienoe and 
train their birds 
gradually, and also 
send them to the 
post fresh, fit and 
keen, and not jaded 
and weary. If good 
; fortune dropped me 
down amongst the 
keen, good fanciers 
of the north, and I 
had to start a loft, 
I should, with a firm 
belief in the magic 
of patience, do it 
on the following 
lines :—In their first 
year, as squeakers, 
I should fly my 
birds 50 miles; 
second year, as one- 
year - olds, 100 
two - year - olds, 200 
three-year-olds, 300 
miles; third year, as 
miles; fourth year, as 
miles; fifth year, when the birds were four 
years old, I should be ready for the advo¬ 
cates of the flying of young birds to any distance 
they liked. In addition, I should mercilessly 
draft all birds that allowed themselves to be 
continually beaten, so as to enable me to enter 
for the races with reliable birds only.” 
The advice from England’s greatest Racing- 
Pigeon man—for to this title Mr. Logan is en¬ 
titled—is indeed valuable. In 1886 he and his 
brother sent ten birds to La Rochelle. They 
had four home the same day, and five more 
before breakfast the next morning. This is a 
marvellous record. 
