GREAT PIGEON RACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

GREAT PIGEON RACE.

SIXTEEN THOUSAND BIRDS

A SIGHT WORTH SEEING

There can be few prc(tier sights in this world than that of a (light of pigeons fluttering upward into a blue skv. Those who rofte early enough in Budapest the other day saw no fewer than 16,000 homing pigeons released there, to show how fast they could fly homeward. The birds had been taken all the way from Germany in a special train—3l railway carriages full to the brim—to take part in this pigeon jamboree. Needless to say, they were received in state, like any other group of dislinguished visitors, by the Hungarians, who love all hue sport, and have a soft spot in their hearts for all dumb creatures, feathered or furred. They stayed but one night, hardly long enough to see the sights of the town,, and were due to start home again at five the next morning. But it is with tlio pigeons;*~as with other long-distance aviators. Atmospheric conditions must be taken, inlo consideration, and at first these seemed anything but favourable. The patiently-waiting crowd began to fear that it had sacrificed its morning sleep in vain. Bui at last, telephone messages from various towns in Austria announced that the aerial road was clear, and punctually at six o'clock 2000 osier cages were opened and 16,000 pairs of snowy, silvery, slatey and honeycoloured wings shot upward, and, with an unerring instinct, westward. The pigeons belonged to the first batch oi entries, those which had ■come from Hamburg, Hanover and the Rhino districts, and had the longest to Hyi It. is 1050 kilometres—about 656 milos-rfrom Budapest to Hamburg, as the crow and the pigeon fly, and the brave little travellers were expected to do the trip in , about 15 to 17 hours—those .of them which arrived, that, is,; for among 16,000 there were bound to be a'few casualties. j ■'