HOMING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 58

HOMING NOTES.

Br Maxjsta Mealy.

The Dtmedin Homing Pigeon Club flew off a an interval race on Saturday from Ashburn ton, tun airline distanoe al 151 miles. Tho a pigeons were sent away in separate pens, a etch owner's birds being "liberated at inter- ■ I vals of five minutes. Mr L. <x. MTJonald i" , and two assistants liberated the birds. * Nineteen lofte were represented. The racers " . h«d a light north-east wind, but the weather c ! w«s very cloudy and mis-ty, the birds arriv- ' ) ing with their feathers thoroughly drenched. 8 ; Five lefts had no arrivals. The winner was I in No. 16 pen. The race resulted as follows:' i B. J. Finnegan's Jesan Gerady II (time, 3hrs lOmin; velocity 1392 yds Oft 3in) .. 1 Mt J. Tattersfield's Master Zwigger (time, 3hrs 9imin; velocity 138Qyds> .. . . 2 " J. Henderson's Leith Glen (lime, 3hr 19imin; velocity, 1310 yds lft lin) .. .3 J. Veitch's Silver Fern (time, Shr 28min; velocity, 1282 yds Oft 7in) 4 R. Umbers' s Monarch (time, Shr 24Jmin ; velocity, 1281 yds) 5 Next Saturday's race will be flown from Amberley. Mr Boddington, manager of the Bank of New South Wa\es. will liberate the birds. Jean Gerardy 17 is by Jean Gerardy ex La Tosca. The North Otago Pigeon-flying Club flew an interval race from Dunedin, an air-line , distance of 59 miles. Mr Tattersfield, of I the Dunedin Club, liberated the birds in misty weather, with a N.E. wind. The I winner turned up in J. ' Banhingham's I -Young Barney, which traversed the distance in 2hrs. The relpcities. .-were : — J. 3 Benningham's Young Barney, • 971 yds 2ffc -•' lOin ; J. Robertson's Favourite, 833 yds Iffc » W. Gordon's Darkey, 757yda 2ft . Uin ; F. - • Couper's Huntsman, 720 yd- lit sin; J. 1 and E. Baker and G. Gubbins also com- * peted. Young Barney was bred from a cock imported from Mr Yates, of Ballarat, and a hen bred by Mr Drayton, Christchuroh. ■ > Favourite, by Advance, ex Miss Sambo, > was bred by the owner. Darkey, a grand- | son of Clipper was bred by Mr Hunt, 1 Christchurch. I Continuing my remarks from last week: The object of every action must be to give | the bird confidence in himself, and in you, and this confidence must never for a moment be shaken. Let, then, his earliest . experiences be happy ones, and when the time comes for him to take his first peep abroad, he will already look on his loft as a safe and sure retreat from the dangers and the troubles of the outside world. It is easy to teacb, but desperately hard to un- f , learn, and he must never know what unkindness is at home. When hie time comes for training, make him pleasantly 1 acquainted with the pannier; catch him gently, let him have a few hours in it in his loft; give him a 'ittle seed in it, and teach him to know where to look for water. Educate him gradually along the line. Never send him from borne when physically unfitted to easily regain it; it is • not only foolish, but cruel. Watch also the weather. 1$ there is one thing cer- ' tain in pigeon raising it ie the wholly deleterious effects of a bad toss on a young bird. So potent are early experiences . for good or ill. When h« return* he ia ! naturally excited and nervous, so don't frighten him by hurriedly grabbing him in > the trap. When he is mated, let him i always find his house in order on his return from a race, and his mate add his young: waiting to greet him. He will then feel I that his trouble and exertions have met with their due reward, and he will waste no time on the road on subsequent occasions He will learn, in fact, that tho i game is worth the candle. One might continue indefinitely, but enough has been said to show the lines on which you may j hope to cultivate the unknown factor. ' It may be that amongst those who shall chance to glance over these notes, there will be •some who will characterise tho opinion* expressed therein as so muph sentimental non.«en3e. but, be that as it may, the last, word will still remain to be written on the subject of training, until evety ■ racing pigeon in the Dominion can, in theoiy concerning its master, make use of r.n expression similar to that which Shakes- - near<» put into the mouth of the Moor* OLhello : She loved me for the. dangers I had passed, And I loved her that she did pity them.

" Men chefs are much more capable than women cooks," remarked the manager of the Savoy Hotel recently, " because they usually-> serve a hard apprenticeship, during which they get a lob knooked out ot them and a lot rubbed into them. W« have 120 men servants in the hotel kitf chen, and not one woman. They work to» gether well, but if we had irornen in theis place not a day would pass without some) quarrel." Cadow Station, near Forbes (New Soutß Wales), furnishes a remarkable instance ofj longevity in a horse, where Messrs Jonej Bros, are the . possessors of a draught mara 42 years old. The mare's age ia undoubted^ as she has never passed out of the present owners' hands, having been bred on tb4 station. She is still active, and is harnessed up every week for some small service PC anothej-