£500 PAID FOR PIGEON

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 28

£500 PAID FOR PIGEON

Racing Stratagems Described (ff.Z. Press Association-Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, December 2. An eight-year-old blue racing pigeon called News Lad has brought a record price of £5OO at a London auction. This makes him top bird out of 10 million registered pigeons in Britain. The bird first achieved fame when he won an 800-mile race from Barcelona to Britain two years in succession. His new owner, Frank G’eorge, told the “Daily Mirror:” “News Lad will be worth every penny of that record price. Average racing pigeons cost from £5 to £25 a pair and with luck I will be able to breed three pairs of youngsters from News Lad every year until he is about 14. Some of them may be champions.” Some pigeon fanciers use little stratagems to speed up their birds’ homeward flight. Pigeons are very jealous so before the race some fanciers put a strange cock into the nest. This puts the original occupier into a rage and sends him streaking back to the loft to deal with the intruder. . The way of speeding home a hen bird is to sit her before the race on a dummy egg containing a worm. Feeling the movement of the worm, the hen believes the egg is about to hatch. Parted from it, she makes a beeline for horn? to complete the job.