HOLD UP IN LONDON

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 56, 15 September 1928, Page 14

HOLD UP IN LONDON

BABY PIGEON IN THE WAY A delightful tiling took place in London the other day. It was all about a baby pigeon, says an English exchange. Generally speaking, the last creatures to trouble about traffic aye the pigeons. They hop cheekily in front of the bus and flirt up in the air at the last second with joyous unconcern. But there is one season when they are nervous —when their fledglings are growing up. One mother and father were busily engaged teaching their little one to fly. Their practice ground was near the nest on a high roof in the city. Underneath them buses, lorries, taxis wore crowding along, the traffic at its .heaviest. It was a windy morning, and a sudden gust took the fluttering baby pigeon unawares. He' had been very proud of the few yards he had flown, very close to the roof, with mother and father near. Then, whoof! Before he knew where he was the wind had blown him like a leaf over the edge of the high building down into the crowded street. He managed by a happy, chance to got on to a ledge a few feet from the ground. The anxious father and mother came down to him and tried to persuade him to fly on a bit. But he v.-as terrified, and clung trembling to thi! ledge. ■ . Then some boys flung their caps at tin; birds, thinking it a great game. Out into thu roadway flow the angry pigeons. It was that great friend of the distressed, ihe London policeman, who came -to the rescue. He gently caught the baby pigeon and made all the traffic stop while someone ran for a ladder, mounted it, and put the little bird, on a safe, broad, ledge high above the street. The father and mother followed gladly, and while they were standing close 011 either side of their shivering baby', safe in their upper world once more, the mass of'roaring traffic went on. The Great City was itself again.