The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-01-24

kES%IY$VI activities In the battle of Bethur-
@VZH& court and Dead Mans hill. An en-
S tire French regiment was cut OIL from
their comrades, completely surrounded for tour
days. and with no method of communicating word
of their plight to the general In command. mat
fourth night one of the men scouting in NO Mans
Land stumbled over a dead comrade on Whose
back was strapped a basket carrying two niue
pigeons that during the four-day battle mao Deen
sateguarded by the body of their caretaker. Ten
DERBY the scout brought the basket and blrds
back to the colonel on the hill. Early the next
morning messages were written, affXed 10 the
legs of the birds, which, exhausted ana DUST
sOiled, but imbued with indomitable spirit ana
pluck, were liberated-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 YEARLY into their loft back at
headquarters; and in a sortie ordered by the gen
crul 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 fe war is over he will have a loft Of the
hest birds he can get, and the best care and at
teuticn that is possible will be but a slight part
of his measure Of appreciation and gratitude to
the 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 headquarters when all other
mems 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
ton they have an enviable record. There has not
been a single accident to q plane, nor the loss of
a plane in combat, where word Of the occurrence
was not brought back by the pigeons which are
q part of the equipment of the planes. Instances
of the value Of the messengers could be multi
oiled 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, it's
power to know as soon as 1t is released in what
direction it's home loft is and to fly directly to 1t.
The perfection to which OrientatiOn Is developed
u the highly bred and trained homer was recently
demonstrated at u pigeon fly conducted by the
piseon section Of the signal corps, when 300
honing pigeons were released in Washington for
a 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
iy and the first arrival made the trip in 8 hours
and 40 minutes. Surely it did not stop =, read
many sign posts on the way.
Just how the homing pigeon developed this
mower Of orientatiOn is a moot question, but IL il
certain that IL mas peeh cu'uva,eu through cen
turies until now it Is almost Qncanny. What
gu,des the pigeon back to the loft where it first
.tnok to the air" Is a quality called by many
names. and you will find that each person knows
that ne has the answer to the riddle. Some call
II innate love of home; others attribute 1t to fac
r,tv. atmospheric conditions sight, or memory.
personally. / cannot call 1t anything more or less
,h,p instinct. highly developed. We find 1t In
,oaser degree i'm horses, dogs and cats, and In
ot,or birds IL seems to be developed a little less
markedly. but with sufficient accuracy so that
they migrate annually thousands Of miles without
On. aid of any other compass than their instinct.
when we remember the potent power of seiec-
tion and think of the years and generations of
c,rofu, breeding and selection which the homing
,iroon hos undergone 1t is not so wonderful that
Z thpy have developed the homing instinct TO q high
! Iecree. have seen their cousins, the fairtaiied
nireons. bred to such Il degree of fneness that
,l,,y v,iehpd only u few ounces apiece ana were