The Butler weekly times., 1891-03-11
PIGEONS ON THE WING,
Instances of the Extraordinary speed
They Acquire.


The power of pigeons On the wing is
proverbial. All trained birds Of this
species have two qualifications in j
marked degree. The first is speed. the
second long and sustained powers of
flight. This proposition can be amply
demonstrated and the following are
some of the most remarkable records:
On October Is. 1880, sir John Ross dis
patched pair of young pigeons from
Assistance Bay. little west of Vel
lington Sound. and on October Is q pig
con made its appearance at the dove
cote in Ayrshire, Scotland, whence Sir
John had the pair taken ont The
distance direct between the two places
i 1000 miles. An instance is on record
of pigeon flying twenty-three miles
in eleven minutes. anil another few
from Rouen to Ghent, $50 miles,
in an hour and a half An in
teresting incident of flight is the case
of pigeon which. in 1s45, fell wounded
and exhausted at Vauxhall station then
the terminus OF the Southwestern rail-
way. 1t bore a message to the effect
that ii was one of three dispatched to
the Duke of Wellington from lchaboc
Island, 1000 miles away. The message
was Immediately sent to His Grace, and
by him acknowledged. In pigeon com
petition Some years ago the winning
bird flew from Ncntnor to Manchester
pos miles. at the rate of fifty miles an
hour. A> an experiment d trained
pigeon was recently dispatched from d
northern newspaper Office with re-
quest that it might be liberated for its
return journey at 9:l5 Il. II. 1t reached
home at i:l0 p. IN. having covered in
the meantime liS miles. flying at the
rate of forty miles an hour. In the
north pigeons have long been used to
convey messages between country
houses and market towns, and in Rus
sia they are now being employed to
convey negatives of photographs taken
IN balloons. The first experiment of
the kind was made from the cupOla of
the Cathedral of Isaac. and the subject
photographed was the Winter Palace
The plates We're packed in envelopes.
impcnetrable to light, and then tied to
the feet of the pigeons which safely and
Eolhoyo. Here is another interesting
instar e of speed and staying power.
The p cons in question flew from Bor-
deauI 20 Manchester, and not only beat
all existing records. but flew more than
seven: =. mile, further than any thing
previously attempted by English flyers.
The winning bird few At the rate of
1879 yard, " minute. or over 81 miles an
hour. and that for a distance of 14215
miles. The same club has flown
birds distances of 6l3 and 625 miles
These latter. however, We're several
days in returning. and in their case
the only wonder is that they could ac-
complish the distance at all The fol-
lowing is still more interesting. as il
entailed ID race between birds and in
sects. A pigeon fancier of Hamme. in
Westphalia, made Il wager that dozen
bees liberated three miles from their
hive would reach it in better time than
a dozen pigeons would reach their cot
from the same distance. The compcti-
tors we're given wing at Rhynhern. a
village nearly league from Ha1nme.
and the first bee finished quarter of a
minute in advance of the first pigeon.
three other bees reached the goal be-
fore the second pigeon. the main body
Of both detachments finishing almost
simultaneously an Instant or two later
The bees too. may be- said to have been
handicapped in the race. having been
rolled in Sour before starting for pur-
poses of Identification. t Cornhill Maga-
zine.