The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-07-05
PIGEONS IN MILITARY SERVICE.
The Training Necessary to Make Birds
Useful on the Battlefield.

me training Necessary to Make Birds
Useful on the Battlefield.
The MtEitdr- WochenbIott publishes an
article on the rearing and training Of carrier
pigeons for military service. The first thing
to be done, it says, was to find breed of
birds at once intelligent, hardy, strong and
light on the wing, and of a dull, uniform
color, likely to escape pursuit. All these
attributes are possessed by the Belgian
breed, which is divided into two classes
the large, heavy Antwerp and the smaller,
lighter Luttich variety.
The training must begin early. AS soon
as the young pigeons can fly they are taken
out OF the pigeon house, put into a basket
and carried always with the flying hole of
the basket kept carefully turned toward the
pigeon house, to an unknown spot at a short
distance, where they are set free and let fly
home. 1t is seldom that a pigeon fails in
the first short trials to find its way back to
its paternal nest. AT each trial the distance
is slightly heightened. Pigeons six months
old are liberated at a distance of 80 kilo-
metres from home, those of year old $50
kilometers, those of two years old at 800
kilometers, and the older birds at 600 to 800
kilometers.
These, of course, are averaged measure
ments, and are varied according to circum-
stances. The percentage of losses naturally
long flights the birds meet with innumera.
bic hinderances; rain, hail, fogs, winds and
thunder-storms not only impede their flight,
but often affect their wonderful sense of
locality and direction. The birds are re-
markedly sensitive TO cleo tricity so that
thunder-storms are peculiarly battling to
them, and large forests, great extents Of
water, and ranges Of mountains influence
and alter the upper air currents, by the
direction Of which the pigeons, taught by
some marvellous instinct, are able t. steer
their course.
The average speed of pigeon is reck-
oned at a kilomeuer q minute and on this
basis, and taking into consideration the time
of year, length of daylight, weather, etc. +,
calculations are made of the distance a
pigeon can be sent. In summer, when dav-
light begins at $3.50 o'clock in the morning
and lasts till $50 o'clock at night, a trained
pigeon can do about 1000 kilometers In a
day, while on a foggy November day,
when the daylight begins late and
darkness comes on early, the same
bird cannot accomplish more than 400
kilometers. One great drawback hitherto
attendant on the use of pigeons has been the
supposed impossibility of making them fly
backward and forward between two points;
they would only fly in ono direction. Now,
however, Capt. Malogoli, the head Of the
Italian military carrier pigeon depots, has,
after immense and unwearying trouble, sue
ceeded in getting his pigeons to fly back
ward and forward between Rome and Civita
Vecchia (seventy-two kilometres.
This practical success has shattered the
theories OF various ornithologists, such as
Russ, who have affirmed that pigeons can
not be made to fly in two directions The
chief points to be observed in the rearing of
pigeons are, roomy, warm houses facing
towards the sun, scrupslous cleanliness,
light food, and abundance of clean, fresh
water. The smaller the bird and the quieter
its color the better chance it stands of
safety from human and other enemies;
among the latter the falcon is the most
dangerous The military pigeon post is best
organized in Germany, Italy and France.
In the last French budget sum of $4,000
francs was devoted to that branch Of the
service, and there are at present in France
twenty-five sub-depots. besides the chief
Representation. In Italy there are twelve
sub-depots, and five in the Italian possess
sions in Africa.