The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-01-16

their comrades completely surrounded for four
days, and with method of communicating word
of their plight to the general in command. That
fourth night of the men scouting in No Mans
Land stumbled a dead cOmrade on whose
back was strapped basket carrying two little
pigeons that during the fOur-day battle had been
safeguarded by the body OF their caretaker. Ten
derly the scout brought the basket and birds
back TO the colonel the hill. Early the next
morning messages written, affixed to the
legs of the birds, which, exhausted and dust
soiled, but imbued with indomitable spirit and
pluck, were Hberated-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 futtered weariIy 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 loft of the
best birds he can get, and the best care and at
tention that is possible will be but slight part
of his measure of appreciation and gratitude to
the little feathered messengers to whom he and
his comrades their lies.
These little birds have been used in almost
every conceivable way to get word back to the
reserves to headquarters when all other
ns.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 hydropIane sta
been single accident to a plane, the loss of
a plane in combat, where word of the occurrence
was not brought back by the pigeons which are
part of the equipment of the planes. Instances
of the value of the messengers could be multi
piled without number but it is more interesting
to recount how these birds bred. reared and
housed under conditions.
The pigeons ability to do all of these wonderful
tasks lies in its faculty of orentation that is its
power to know as soon as it is released in what
direction home loft is and fly directly to it.
The perfection to which orientation is developed
in the highly bred and trained homer was recently
demonstrated at pigeon fly conducted by the
pigeon section of the signal corps, when 3,1OO
hoIning pigeons released in Washington for
a fly to New York city. 224 miles. To single
bird these pigeons out of their coops and
arose in the air with the speed of an express
train, and after taking a half circle to get their
bearing were off for New York. Every one of
the pigeons reported to have arrived prompt
ly and the first arrival made the trip in hours
and 40 minutes. Surely it did not stop to read
many sign posts on the way.
Just how the homing pigeon developed this
power of orientation is moot question, but it is
certain that it has been cultivated through CEN
turtles until it is almost uncanny. What
guides the pigeon back to the loft where it first
sstook to the air. is quality called by many
names and you will find that each person knows
that he has the answer to the riddle Some call
If innate love of home; others attribute it to fac
uIty atmospheric conditions sight, memory
Personally cannot call it anything more or less
than instinct, highly developed. We find it in
lesser degree in horses. dogs and cats, and in
other birds it seems to be developed little less
markedly but with sufficient accuracy that
they migrate annually thousands of miles without
the aid of any other compass than their instinct.
When we remember the potent power of seIec-
tiop and think of the years and generations of
careful breeding and selection which the homing
pigeon has undergone it is not so wonderful that
they have developed the homng instinct to a high
| degree. 1 have seen their cousins the fantaed
pigeons bred to such degree of fineness that
they weighed only few ounces apiece and were