BY THE WAYSIDE 
r>8 
finding some weakling who will yield to 
their demands. 
Hoping to receive a few lines from you 
on the subject, I am, 
Respectfully yours, 
The Millinery Jobbers Association, 
Frederock Bobe, President. 
With this example before them, it cer¬ 
tainly behooves all, who in thoughtless 
ignorance have been wearing objection¬ 
able feathers, to make atonement, not 
merely by making no further efforts to 
secure these trimmings but by using 
their influence with any young people in 
their charge, so that, in the future, the 
ever dangerous demand for the plu¬ 
mage'of oUr most beautifui'^nd useful 
birds may cease. 
J. T. G. 
My Bird Visitor. 
I had just finished breakfast 5 “last Sun¬ 
day morning when the cook 5 'Came to me 
in'a great excitement. * 
“There’s a bird in the kitchen,” she 
announced. 
“A sparrow?” I asked. 
“No. a big bird.” 
On the top of the ice box, just inside 
of the open back door I found a pigeon 
sitting serenely. 
Our apartment is on the sixth floor and 
outside of the kitchen there is a narrow 
iron balcony which he may have mis¬ 
taken for the landing of a pigeon-cot. 
He greeted me with a single deep note, 
quite unlike the usual conversational 
“Look-at-a-c-oo, look-at-a-c-oo,” of his 
kind? I had recognized him immedi¬ 
ately as a homing pigeon bv the' white 
wattle over the base of his bill, and the 
little circle of reddish brown, crinkled 
skin about each eye. This, however, did 
not mean that he was anything unusual, 
for many homers are raised for the mar- 
ket. Just then he straightened up to 
get a better look at me and I caught 
sight of a metal ring around his leg. I 
shut the door hastily; I was going to see 
more of this professional traveler. 
A neighbor of mine, who understands' 
pigeons and how they should be handled 
caught this one with little difficulty 7 . Bv 
feeling its crop, he was able to tell that it 
was hungry, so I got some bread and a 
glass of water and the bird ate and drank 
while being held. 
We had alreadv examined the ring on 
its leg. On this was stamped: “CA 03* 
7072.*” The “CA” we could not inter¬ 
pret. Perhaps “03” was the year when 
he was hatched or made his first flight, 
“7073” was no doubt his registered num¬ 
ber. 
We decided that the easiest wav to find 
%/ 
out about him would be to send him off 
with a message. Usually the message is 
made into a little roll and tied under the 
tail, but we thought that ours would es¬ 
cape notice unless it could be readily 
seen, so we pastted it flat to the top of his 
middle tail feather. 
On account of some unavoidable de¬ 
lays he was kept in three hours, but, as 
he seemed tired when he came, perhaps 
he would have staid that long anyway. 
He was a fine, vigorous looking bird, 
bluish in color, a good deal mottled with 
black on his back and wing coverts; and 
with handsome metallic reflections on 
his neck. 
I have never myself had the opportun¬ 
ity to observe, but I have been told that 
the head of the homer pigeon is much 
longer, from the beak backward, than 
the heads of other pigeons, and here the 
homing instinct is supposed to be located; 
but all this really goes a very short way 
