Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-02-26
PIGEONS ON The WING.
DISTANCES of the Extraordinary Speed
They Acquire.


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 .
marked degree. The first is speed, the
second long and sustained powers Of
flight. This proposition CIV 30 IMPLY
demonstrated, and the fol-, q are
some of The most remarkable records:
On October 6, 1850, Sir John Ross dis
patched pair of young pigeons from
Assistance Bay, little west of We'll
Lngton Sound, and on October IS pig
con made its appearance at the dove
cote in Ayrshire, Scotland, whence Sir
John had the pair taken out. The
distance direct between the two places
is 1000 miles An instance is on record
OF pigeon flying twenty-three miles
In eleven minutes, and another few
from Rouen to Client, $50 miles,
in an hour and a half. An in
teresting incident of fight 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 It was one of three dispatched to
the Duke of Wellington from Ichaboe
Island, 1000 miles away. The message
was Immediately sent to His Grace, and
ny him acknowledged. In pigeon COM
petition some years ago the winning
bird flew from Ventnor to Manchester.
3Os miles, at the rate of fifty miles an
hour. As an experiment trained
pigeon was recently dispatched from
northern newspaper office with a re-
quest that it might be liberated for its
return journey at 9:45 a. m. 1t reached
home at 1:1O p. m, having covered in
the meantime las 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
STA 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, md the subject
photographed was the Winter Palace.
The plates were packed in envelopes,
impenetrable to light, and then tied TO
the feet of the pigeons, which safely and
quickly carried them to the station at
Volkovo. Here is another interesting
instance of speed and staying power.
The pigeons in question few from Bor-
deauX TO Manchester, and not only beat
all existing records, but few more than
seventy miles further than any thing
previously attempted by English flyers.
u. L. a II
1,S79 yards minute, or over "a miles an
hour, and that for a distance of 142H
miles. The same club has flown
birds distances of 613 and 625 miles.
These latter, however, were several
days in returning, and in their case
the only wonder is that they could &C
compliSh the distance at all. The fol-
lowing is still more interesting, as it
entailed a race between birds and in
sects. A pigeon fancier Of Hamme, in
Westphalia, made 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 competi-
tors were given wing at Rhynhern, a
village nearly league from Hamme,
and the first bee finished a 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 tohave been
handicapped in the race, having been
rolled in flour before starting for pur-
poses of ntifcation.-COrnhin Maya
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