Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-01-16

IIC hlChNh
their comrades, completely surrounded for lou,
DAYS. and with no method of communicating word
of tbeir plight to the general in command. Inat
fourth night one of the men scouting IN mo MANS
Land tumbled over q dead comrade on WHOSE
back was strapped a basket carrying two niue
pigeons that during the four-day battle had Deeh
safeguarded by the body of their caretaker. len
derby the scout brought the basket ana pros
back TO the colonel on the hill. Early the next
morning messages were written, affixed to the
legs of the birds, which, exhausted and dust
soiled. but imbued with indomitable spirit ana
pluck, were libe~rated-wafted into the air by the
PRAYERS and wishes of the regiment, bearing with
them the only remaining hope for these thousands
of men and the happiness of other thousands IN
their families at home. Shortly afterward both
birds huttered YEARLY into their loft back at
Headquarters; and in a sortie ordered by the gen
eral the enemy was driven back and the regiment
saved.
One of the officers of that regiment is now in
Washington, and he has promised himself that
now the war is over he will have a loft of the
best birds he can get, and the best. care and at
tention that is possible will be but a slight part
of his measure of appreciation and gratitude to
rhe little feathered messengers to whom he and
his comrades owe their lives.
These little birds have been used in almost
every conceivable way to get word back to the
reserves or TO neauQudFlefS witch dl otHeI
means of communication failed.
Carrier pigeons are not only used by the in
fantry and the navy, but are used frequently by
the air service. At the Dunkirk hydroplane sta
tion they have an enviable record. There has not
been a single accident to a plane, nor the loss of
a plane in combat, where wor1 of the occurrence
was not brought back by tie pigeons which are
a part of the equipment of the planes. Instances
of the value of the messengers could be multi
ptiad without number, but it is more interesting
to recount how these birds are bred, reared and
housed under war conditions.
The pigeons ability to do all of these wonderful
tasks lies in its faculty of orientation, that is, its
mower to know as soon as 1t is released in what
direction it's home loft is and to fly directly to it.
The perfection to which orientation is developed
In the highly bred and trained homer was recently
demonstrated at a pigeon fly conducted by the
pigeon section OF the signal corps, when 3,100
homing pigeons were released in Washington for
n fly to New York city, 224 miles. To a single
bird, these pigeons ran out of their coops and
arose In the air with the speed of an express
rain, and after taking a half circle to get their
bearing were off for New York. Every one of
the pigeons was reported to have arrived prompt
~ and the first arrival made the trip in 5 hours
and 40 minutes. Surely it did not stop to read
many sign posts on the way.
lust how the homing pigeon developed this
mower of orientation is a moot question, but it is
certain that it has been cultivated through cen
tnries until now 1t is almost uncanny. What
yuides the pigeon back to the loft where It first
"took to the air. is a quality called by many
names, and you will find that each person knows
that he has the answer TO the riddle. Some call
q innate love Of home Others attribute 1t to fac
,ltv. atmospheric conditions, sight, or memory.
personally, ! cannot call 1t anything more or less
than instinct highly developed. We find 1t in
lesser degree In horses, dogs and cats, and In
otbar birds 1t seems to be developed a little less
markedly, but with sufficient accuracy so that
thew migrate annually thousands of miles without
me aid of any other compass than their instinct.
when we remember the potent power Of selec-
lion and think Of the years and generations of
careful breeding and selection which the homing
pigeon has undergone 1t is not SO wonderful that
they have developed the homing instinct to a high
degree. / have seen their cousins, the ~fan-tailed
pigeons, bred to such a degree Of fneness that
they weighed only a few ounces apiece and were