Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-12
WINGED MESSENGERS OF WAR.
Much of the South African News Fur.
nfshed by Pigeon Post

nished by Pigeon Post.
From the Toronto Mail and Empire
Presumably the pigeons that are serving
as post boys in the Trarsvaal Just now ar
rived out on The warshp Powerful unless,
which Is not improbable, certain Britishers
in Natal or Durham had established lofts
where homing birds were trained to the
country l am inclined to favor the former
idea owing to the fact that a naval pigeon
post has been for some time established
and lofts have been built at Davenport
Gosport and Sheerness at a cost of about
1000. couple of years ago the admiralty
bought large number of one-month-old
birds and placed them in the royal navy
loft at Gosport, intending to use them for
the conveyance of messages from warships
to shore, with a view of rendering them
serviceable in time of war There are over
three hundred societies in England for the
cultivation of homers. and many of the
older birds have flown over 100 miles with
out showing signs of Tagging.
A good pigeon will fly over sixty miles
an hour over short distances. These times
are kept with great care in Germany, and
the apparatus for noting the time is most
ingenious. The pigeon is taught to an
nounce ITS arrival at its loft by knocking
with its beak against the closet trap door
OF the doyecote. This action sets in mo-
ton machinery which filings open the door,
admits the bird, and at the same time rings
a bell that hangs in the attendants room.
The greatest care and patience are neces-
sary while training the birds. 1t might
seem sIIperfiuous in these days of telephone
telegraph and wireless teiegraphy to go to
the trouble of training birds to carry dis
patches, but the wisdom of the action is
made manifest today, when the whole
world centers about the message a pigeon
may be carrying among his feathers as he
wings over kopje and yeldt on his way TO
his dovecote on the waiting ship.
You may care to know the way the dis
patches are carried-in times of peace at
least. The message, If 1t be a long one.
graphic process. by which eight octave
pages of writing or printing may be re-
ouced TO mere nothing. The little photo
graph is then rolled and placed within a
quiz, which Is introduced among the tail
feathers of the pigeon and carefully bound
there. The officer at the receiving station
removes the dispatch. and with the aid of
the powerful oxyhydrogen microscope
magazines the writing to more than its first
dimensions.
This process can hardly be in force just
now at Lady5miIh. therefore the dispatches
are reduced to a few necessary words or
lines. to which the reporter or correspon-
dent applies the microscope of his imagina-
ton and we get the story magnified to more
than seven times its first dimensions. The
birds would fly direct from Ladysmith to
the warship. where. no doubt, special pro-
vision has been made for them. There
can be hardly any doubt that the marines
brought the pigeons up with them when
they went to reinforce Gen. White, and re-
leased, the birds would make for their
dovecote.
To italy belongs the credit of having first
recognized the utility of training pigeons
as messengers in war time. while now
Yearly every EUporean ration has its regi-
ment of homers. These birds are better
"stayers" than the carrier pigeon proper
md n IT..
more intelligent and easier to train Com
mander Tufnell Is the great English au-
thority on pigeons, and the training of birds
is his hobby. For long time this gentle
man and few officers trained birds a
their own expense, and SO successful were
their experiments that the intelligence de-
partment took hold of the matter officially
with the result that 1t was proposed-and
may possibly be an accomplished fact by
this time-to fit out a runber of the armed
cruisers with pigeon cotes.
The loft at Davenport is built so high that
the birds can see it when a long way out
at sea The cotes. which were planned by
Commander Tufnel. are cleverly construct
ed. The birds have general living and
sleeping quarters, with cells" provided
where birds of a doubtful character are
held over till their special sins are found
out Each cote has it's hospital, where the
sick post boys are carefully attended to.
The officers at the stations are very earn
est in their efforts to train the birds to
long-distance flyirg, and they apparently
have met with great success. As long ago
as 1896 racing birds which We're flown at
Thurso. in Scotland, reached their English
homes. distance of 800 miles. In a single
day, the fastest bird travelling at the speed
of i 400 yards minute. 1 do not know the
distance between Ladysmith and Durham
but roughly guessing 1t from a close study
OF the map 1t appears to be something less
than 200 miles. II the pigeons on board the
Powerful-always supposing the ship came
out equipped With pigeon post-are worth
their grain. they would he ahla n ka
the journey from Ladysmith to their post
in three hours and a half. German mill
tary pigeons have the following records to
their credit: Eighty-three miles in one
hour, thlrty-two minutes, thirty seconds
Four hundred and forty miles In seven
hours. forty-three minutes. Three hun