El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-29

its direction many times in the journey,
plumbs the home line unerringly. Does
the sense come by heredity brought
about by a training Of ancestors Is
it an instinct that has belonged to the
pigeon from the beginning? These,
and innumerab1e other questions which
might be asked about the homing in
stinct have not yet been answered sat
isfactorily by the student Of natural
history
The pigeon does not need to be able
to fly in order to get home. Not long
ago a Philadelphia wag bet a friend
who was a pigeon fancier that his pig
con could mot travel from New York
TO Philadelphia. He took the bird. and
before turning it loose in New York.
clipped one of its wings so that it
could not fly. One day passed, then
another. On the third day the bird
reached home. footsore and weary It
IS supposed to have walked all the way
but 1t never missed its direction
To Race With AeropIane.
An enthusiastic devotee of the sport
of pigeon flying is proposing a new
feat for the flying machine operator.
He says that the aviators talk about
beating the birds, but is sangufne it
cannot be done in a long distance race.
He proposes a 100 mile race between
any aviator in the world and team
Of hoening pigeons, and says he will
lay his wager on the hemers. It is
said there has been one race between a
pigeon and a flying machine. When
Latham was flying in Baltimore a team
Of pigeons was liberated in Patterson
park, and as long as they flew in the
same direction as the flying machine,
the birds had the best of IT. One of the
birds stayed on the course longer than
the other and although the machine
made terrific speed, the pigeon safely
maintained its lead
Used in Mexican Revolution.
The pigeon has proved itself useful
in the Mexican revolution A resident
of Chihuahua owns a good team Of
birds. an h sends them to the front
to carry back news as to the opera
tions in the field They did their
work so faithfully that they proved a
fair substitute for the telegraph A
few wears ago a certain convention de-
cided TO charter a lake steamer and
hold its sessions afloat So the re-
wrote their messages on 'sflimsy' and
dispatched the birds In the news
paper office which tried the expert
ment one might have heard the city
editor yell: boy. copy on the roofy'
A. bill was introduced IN the. last
congress by representative Daniel La
fean to prohibit the killing Of pigeons
engaged in Interstate flights. This
bill has the earnest support of the ma
tional association and they are trying
TO bring it to passage. Whether this
bill, il enacted, would apply to the
hawk in the tower Of the Washington
city postoffiee is not known. Tt seems
that the pigeons OF the country nnder-
stand that fourth assistant postmaster
general DeGraw, veteran newspaper
man. is their friend. and when passing
Washington they are inclined to stop
and rest But a hawk made his home
in the clock tower of the posteff1ce
for years and his favorite diet was
homing pigeons Finally orders were
issued declaring the hawk a bandit
who could be shot on sight and the
postoffice department forthwith be-
came an arsenal At this juncture. Ed
ward B. Clark. another Washington
correspondent and an authority on or
anthology. appeared as a champion of
Mr.. Hawk. with the promise that If