CARRIER PIGEONS ON THE CONTINENT.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7384, 9 August 1889, Page 6

CARRIER PIGEONS ON THE CONTINENT.

By Alexander Beck, M. E.

Every one knows how useful pigeons were during the Franco-German war. The rewards paid by the French Government to outside people bold enough to cn>3s the German lines with messages and some pigeons were enormous. The birds belonging to the Paris inhabitants were brought abroad by balloons.andcarue back with messages and news for the besieged ' town. Some of the country pigeons came into Paris in small boxes, carried dnring j the night by dogs belonging to clever smugglers. . How those dogs are trained to avoid sentries and Customs officials, would require a special chapter. Once started nothing can stop them, except similar dogs drilled to flght them. # Each pigeon liberated from Pane, carried messages in full print, sufficient to fill a paper as large as the London Times. These astonishing photographic __ reductions, obtained on special stun" weighing a grain or two, are one of the wonders of this century. During the war and since that time hundreds of thousands of carriers, were ; bought by the Continental Governments, from Belgium the classic country for the best Antwerps. Most of the workmen and private people keep pigeons as a sport. The passion of some fanciers for their pigeons is so strong that they become ■subject to a special eye soreness, provoked by admiring in the ''bright :air the long spirals described by their favourite pets. Every township has several clubs called Bodete Colombophue, the word eolombe being

the French translation of dove. Some being patronised by the Bang are authorised to call themselves Koyal Societies. The competition between them is very keen, and the prices very valuable. Beside the first award the owner of the winning bird receives a gold or silver medal from the society to which he Some of those club 9 were established several centuries ago like the old guilds, having their rules either private or agreed to by the authorities, some being organised on the principle of the English Oddfellows.

Each dab has its flag made in velvet, embroidered with gold and silver mixed with silk of the most rich and artistic design and colours. The medals won hang at the top of the flag pole, around a golden dove, carved by artists of renown. Some of those flags given by the King of the Belgians, are worth four to six hundred pounds.

During the season the State railways and the private railway companies have regular goods trains every week and during the holidays, only for carrying large, flat baskets, containing each fifty pigeons. These trains run all over the country, stopping at the stations required by the Pigeon Clubs. The baskets are put in a row- on the platform, and opened altogether at the same time, under the compulsory supervision of the station master, who is obliged by duty to forward to the clnb a telegram stating the exact time of the letting loose. For international competition, or for competitions over the Belgian boundaries, special and fixed arrangements are made between the German, Dutch, French and Italian Governments with the Belgian authorities. A caretaker is generally sent with the cargo of pigeons, to feed them during their long railway travel, and to look that everything is done straight. The birds are trained and let off by stages or halting places at four, six, eight, ten miles distance from the dovecote; during fair days at first, and then during bad weather to accustom them to storm, rain, and snow. The longest distance I have seen pigeons liberated was at Rome, where they are brought from Belgium by the Indian mail, better known here under the name of the Brindisi mail.

Birds coming back from such a distance are quoted more than their weight in gold by fanciers or professional breeders. Unfortunately very few are able to cross the Apennines and the snow summits of the Lombard and Swiss Alps. The rough weather, the birds of prey, and the cruel sportsmen, are the greatest enemies of the carriers. Between thousands of pigeons forwarded one time from Brussels co Rome I have known nine hundred of them belonging to members of one of the competitive clubs. Only one bird came back out of the 900. Considering that nothing but well-trained carriers are forwarded to such a distance, one can imagine what a loss it must be for the owners. For every competition the birds are marked on the wings and the baskets sealed before leaving the country. The seals are broken by the station master himself, who records everything found wrong before the let-off of the birds. On its arrival home, each pigeon must be brought to the club's office, where the time, carefully recorded before several witnesses, is wired to the head town or club which organised the national or international competition. In every village the excitement around each pigeon club is indescribable. Along the main roads men are posted every two or three hundred yards; when a tired pigeon arrives in its cote, the owner catches him at once and gives it as quick as possible to the first posted man he meets, who runs as fast as a deer on his socks to avoid slipping on the pavement, he carries gently the pigeon and meets at the next standing place another man who starts running with the flrst, and whilst running takes carefully the pigeon without any stoppage. This second runner goes to the third one and so on, until the bird reaches Hhe office.

Sometimes several runners, coming from the same directions, are racing, and the most comical scenes are enjoyed. The passers by, the constables, the larrikins, and the carriages clear out of the way of the runners.who shout or have boys in front of them, calling to free the road.

Bettings are not authorised, but some are privately made,always on a very small scale.

The value of the prizes awarded and. the pride to be a winner, satisfies sufficiently the competitors, who assemble in the evening with their families to enjoy the national beer between the singing an<t dancing. Those gatherings are held at the club, generally established in the most respectable hotel of the place. Since the carriers have been carefully trained by military staffs, for warfare purposes for transmitting messages, many peculiarities have been noticed.

Twenty years ago, everyone thought that the orientation faculty of a pigeon was due to the sight, so largely developed in all the species of birds. Some simple calculations corroborated since by facts have entirely modified this opinion. According to the spheric shape and the size of the earth, oue can easily calculate that in round figures, in a flat country a pigeon has to rise neai'ly half a mile to see at sixty-five miles distance ; two miles in height are necessary to see at 125 miles. At 4£ miles over the sea level the radius of the Right is less than 185 miles, and to see at 250 and 300 miles distance a bird has to rise at 8 and 12 miles.

Then again, experiments done with balloons have shown that pigeons liberated at 4 miles, and even at 3 miles over tlfe ground, are entirely paralyzed in flight, and fall like and an inert mass. If let off at half-a-mile, the density of the air is still too low, and they precipitate themselves towards the earth in spirals of a large magnitude. This proves clearly that at some distances the pigeon's sight cannot explain its strange faculty of orientation; seeing, for instance, that a carrier ought to rise over seven miles to see Christchurch from Dunedin, or half a mile over the ground to see the city of the plains, from the railway terminus at Culverden.

The flight at such heights is nil or considerably reduced, and considering that the birds come back to Christchurch, even when the weather is clear in Otago and foggy in Canterbury, or vice versa, it must be admitted that the eight has nothing to do in the matter.

Very likely the pigeons have an excessive atmostoheric impressibility, rendering them able to recognise that in the north hemisphere the cold comes from the north, dryness from the east, moisture from the west, etc.

To corroborate this supposition it would be interesting to know how a pigeon recently introduced in New Zealand behaves himself, as the cold comes from the south, the moisture from the east, and dryness from the north west, etc. Perhaps there is some head current such as trade winds, more or less permanent in direction, which pilot the carrier towards its cote.

That the birds are impressed by the state of the atmosphere, is plainly proved by bird catchers who are unable to do good work, when the wind blows cold and wet, or the birds conceal themselves.

At anyrate the faculry of orientation cannot be attributed to the sight, and if the above suppositions are found wrong we must admit that the pigeons have a special home senst of which we have no idea.

In my opinion the use of pigeons for warfare purposes has been exaggerated, in spite of their valuable services during the siege of Paris. The following reasons are against them. They are too easily shot, and like the great majority of birds they will not fly after sunset or before daylight. They stop anywhere when the weather is to rough, and the number of their enemies is coo large.

Undoubtedly at the next war we shall see the armies provided with trained falcons or hawks to catch the flying pigeons like in the old shooting time.

Beside the hundreds of carriers kept by the French and German Governments in their fortified places, there are several small underground wires, whose ends are only known by the commanders under the most severe secrecy. These wires -will be connected with the telegraph in case of emergency, as the pigeons will be of no use if birds of prey are trained to chase them daring the war. The talcons, for instance, fly quicker, and are the biggest enemy "of the pigeon tribe; they are easily drilled, like in the old time, and come back to their standing place with their prey, when required, called by the sound of the horn. Christchurch (N.Z.) July 20, 18S9