The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-07
Carrier Pigeons in the south African
War.
From Collier's Weekly.

FROM corners weekly.
The pigeon post established at Lady
smith and Durham for carrying war mes
sages has been such success that spe-
cial appropriations for increasing the ser
vice will be recommended by the war Of
flee. A good deal of this success Of the
pigeon service is due to the skill and en-
ergy of Col. Hassard of the Royal Engin-
GERS, who has spent years in pigeon cul-
ture for just this sort of an emergency
and he has demonstrated the fitness of
the birds for war purposes Col. Hassard,
who was stationed at the Cape before hos
tilities broke out, systematically trained
his pigeons for carrying messages across,
the rough, mountainous land, and his va
rious pigeon posts were of the greatest
value in keeping the home office appraised
of the exact condition of the army
Nearly every civilized government now
has carrier pigeons connected with both
war and navy departments. France has
entered into pigeon culture more extern
sively than any other European power,
and it is roughly estimated that there are
two hundred and fifty thousand pigeons
in that country trained for war emergen-
cies The main pigeon loft or training
station is at Chalons, where several thou
sand birds kept all the time Every
frontier post and fortress has smaller
lofts, and three times a week regular
communication is kept up between these
places by means OF the pigeons. ms pig
con post in constant practice in times of
peace would be of immediate service in
times of war. The state protects the car
rers, and any one caught shooting pig
con Of any kind in France is heavily
fined. The pigeon service has been estab-
lished in France since 1870.
The German war department owns about
10000 pigeons but they have a system of
reserves which they call into service in
time of war. The owners of private dofts
have to register their carrier pigeons and
the war department knows exactly how
many of the birds ii can obtain at a mo-
ment's notice.
The Austrian government also relies
largely upon private owners pigeons for
service in times of war. Every bird i'm the
country has to be registered, and not one
can be sold or sent out of the country
without permission. Since 1875 few thou
sand pigeons have been in regular service
al the fortresses and frontier posts. Rus
STA has q military pigeon system which
Is maintained by the officers in the Corps
Of Engineers. Little is known about her
system, except That lofts are scattered
throughout the empire, including bleak
Siberia. The intense cold of the winter
months in the latter place seriously inter-
feres with'the success OF the pigeon post
and partly neutralizes the good effect of
it. Italy's pigeon post was established in
1872 and Spain and Portugal inaugurated
similar systems a few years later
There are 1000 homing pigeons on tire
books of the British navy. and several
times this number on the books of the
army. In the past ten years the United
States army and navy departments have
been interested in the carrier pigeons. and
we have posts established at different
points throughout the country. Their
services have been useful chiefly IN the
navy. and experiments are being made
constantly i'm communicating by this
means between the shore and the ships
There is no system Of registering homing
pigeons in private lofts, and in an emerg-
ency the government in need OF more pig.
cons would have TO depend upon the pa
triotism Of the private owners for increas-
ing its supply. That there would be plenty
of volunteers no one doubts a moment