Morning journal and courier., 1888-10-19
USEFUL BIRDS.
Carrier Pigeons and the Services They
 Perform for Man.

Perform for Man.
 Pigeons have been uti ized in various ways in New York and private lofts are many, says writer in the Epoch Recent experi- ments have shown that bird may be so trained that it will take it's food at one sta tion and water at another, thus flying regu- larly from one station to the other once or twice day. Many private letter posts are established in this way, connecting city of fees with country homes or factories.
 Homing pigeons are used more or less gen. orally in newspaper offices, and they are des- tined in time to save reporters and cores pondents of large dailies tine trouble and ex- pense of telegraphing on many of their items of news. By having pigeon lofts in all of our large cities news could be obtained easier and by 8 more direct route during heavy winter storms than by the present system Wires are often down or out of working order at such times, and quite fre- quehtly dispatches reach New York from Boston by way of Chicago.
 The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 first brought the homing pigeon into universal favor. Shut up in Paris by the enemy, the French soldiers had no means of mmuni- eating with the outer world until the experi- ment of using homing pigeons messengers was first tried. Three hundred and sixty three birds were sent out of the besieged city by means of sixty-four balloons, ffty-seven of which returned to Paris bearing one hun dred and fifty official dispatches and over one million private messages. Such maas of matter could only be carried into the city by the birds through the aid of photography. Ordinary print, covering 8 space ten feet square. was photographed so as to occupy space on a delicate, ,collodion film about the size of a postage stamp. These films were tied to the feathers of the birds and carried back to the lofts in Paris. By the aid of a magic lantern they were easily deoiphered.
 This work was another illustration of the old saying that necessity is the mother of invention;" for within month the pigeon service for war purposes was brought almost to perfection. Since then several of the Eu- ropean countries have established lofts at their military outposts, perfecting the ser vice annually by constant practice and ex- pertinent.
 In Belgium and portions of France pigeon races might be said to be the national sport. Public trials of the speed of the homing pigeons are almost of daily occurrence, and some remarkable records have been made. For short distances the birds have averaged more than mile a minute. In longer races the average decreases, as the flight of the bird lessens gradually after the hret three hundred miles have been covered. The bird Arnoux carried message from Pensacola, Fla, to Newark, N. J., 8 distance of one thousand and ten miles, in twenty-six days, while another bird from Newark returned from Montgomery, Ala, distance of eight hundred and sixty-six miles, in four and one e,fourtb days. Other records of longer flights have been published, but these two serve as an excellent illustration of the won- derful powers and endurance of the b1fds. The ''correctn homing station is model of perfection in itself. Everything for the convenience and comfort of the pigeons is there, and the birds are made to feel that it is their f'home" When a bird returns from a race it has to alight upon trap before en- tering the loft. This act operates an instan- taneous camera, which photographs the bird and clock to the right of it. The precise moment that the bird returns is thus auto mstically recorded.