The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-21

l Then begins the mating of the birds.
 With the opening of the warm spring
 days preparations are commenced for
 the racing season.
 During the winter the birds take on
 flesh like a race horse which is not ex- ercised, and they have to be trained
 down the same as any athlete. In the
 beginning the birds are sent out, per
 haps to Waukesha, in their wicker bas-
 kets, with a request to the express
 agent there to release them. This is
 always done. A short time afterward | the pigeons are back in their lofts.
 The next week they are sent little
 further This training is kept up un- l til the time arrives for the opening of the seasons races. All flights under
 one hundred miles are called trial l flights. The first race of the season is
 generally started from Mazomanie, on
 the Prairie du Chlen division of the St.
 Paul road. This is one hundred and | five miles from Milwaukee. The birds
 are sent in care of the express agents, with directions to release them the next | day and wire the time the hampers are opened. On receiving the dispatch an- nouncing their departure the owners
 hie themselves to their lofts and watch for the first signs of their feathered
 racers. They have not generally long
 to wait at this distance, and, say the
 birds are released at nine o'clock in the morning, by noon they are all in and | the prize winners are known. The next week the birds are sent to Prairie du | Chien one hundred and fifty miles away; i; then to Jackson Junction, Ia, two hun dred miles away; then to Mason City and to Spencer, la, the last named be- | ing three hundred and sMty-fve miles from Milwaukee in an air line. After this follows the supreme trial of the
 season, flight from Pierre, s. D., six
 hundred and thirty-one miles in an air
 line from this city. The average flight is about forty miles an hour, though
 sixty miles and hour has been made.
 Each fancier is privileged to fly as many
 birds as he sees fit. Tn the earlier
 flights sometimes as many as twenty
 birds are entered by one owner. As the
 season progresses these are winnowed
 out of reason by failure of different ones
 to return from various causes until at
 the last perhaps barely one-half of the
 original number will be available.
 It is the rule to fly all the birds from
 each distance, as it is found that birds
 which have been flown say at two hun
 dred miles and then skip the three hun
 dred miles when entered in race at
 four hundred miles are less liable to re-
 turn promptly than those which have
 flown at all distances. It is for this
 reason that cocks are generally pre-
 ferred to hens. although the latter are
 held by MT Kuehn and others to be the strongest and swiftest fiiers. and win more races where they are entered. But at certain times theihen bird has to be confined to the loftSfo several days, and it might happen that this confine- ment would come on.the day of a race, which would causesher to miss one flight, after whtehs 9tsis good Judgment not to fly the b1fd A8aiii.
 The mating of thesbirds sis one of the secrets of success ini this sport Once mated homing pigeons are. said by fan ciers to be the most faithful in their conjugal relations Of anything en- dowed with life. Thebirds never sepa- rate unless the faneier, for purposes of his own, grant a decree of divorce, or one or the other dies-or is lost In the latter case, should the lost one return, If he is cock, there is serious trouble abroad Mr. Kuehn tells an interesting story of an Enoch Arden case of this sort which came under his especial mo- tice. Last year he sent five birds to Pierre to be released Of these four found their way safely home. The fifth, named Corporal Hoffman, he gave Hp as lost. In aw'faw weeks, however, he received a letter from lad in Min nesota, who said he had found a pigeon resting under an apple tree in the or chard, and on picking it up found Mir. Kuehn's name stamped on it's wing. He said he had it safe in a box, and asked what he should do with it. Feel ing that after this confinement the bird was in no condition to continue it's flight, MT. Kuehn wrote, thanking the boy for his honesty, and enclosing a re- ward at the same time directing him to ship the bird to Milwaukee by ex- press In due time the corporal ar- rived From here we will let MT. Keuhn tell the story
 T took the box" said he, Ion a car and started for my home at Mitchell Heights. When we arrived near the house the corporal began to notice where he was and to try to get out. | I thought I would release him, just to see how he would act | When opened the box away he went l for the loft. As [ wanted to see what would occur when he arrived, | I ran as fast as could and reached the | loft just as he came in from the roof. | I ought to say that during the time the | had been away I had taken | his mate and mated her with another | bird, and they were living happily in | the corporaIs old home. Well, waited | to see what he would do. After stretch | ing his wings and pluming himself, as | if glad to be at home again, he flew up | to the landing outside his old nest and | looked in. There was another cock sit- | ting on two eggs as domestic as you please. At this sight the corporal start ed in. What time they had for few didn't interfere, for want ed to see just what they would do. It was a hot fight. Blood and feathers covered the inside, but it ended by the corporal driving the other bird out and the eggs. Then, bloody as he was, he came strutting outside as proud of his victory as a man would have been under the same circumstances. The hen bird was not at first going to