Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-14

1t may come in with a broken wing.
Sometimes a bird will arrive with
all the flesh worn off its bones from
the hard flight. But it will get
home to it's babies. and when it
does arrive it feeds them before it
feeds itself.
The babies are not left uncared
for during these long, all day flights.
Both the male and the female al
ways take turns sitting on the nest
and feeding the young. If one of
the pair is away the other will guard
the rest faithfully for as long as two
days. BY experimental work Lieut.,
McAtee has eve trained a bird to
stay with the nest for four days In
the absence of the mate.
At four weeks the baby birds are
at the age when they may be eaten
as squads. At six weeks they have
lost the. olumpness that makes them
desirable for food. They are full
grown. The baby homers that sur
vive the hotel menu age are soon
ready for training. They have the
instinct of ~orientation, no n knows
why or now. But they rave to be
trained to use it for the benefit of
man.
The young, full fledged birds are
called to be fed by rafting grain
in a can. They learn to know the
trainer and the sound and to come
| when he calls them. Then they are
let out for exercise. They fly round
and round the loft while their wings
gain strength, until the trainer calls
them down by rafting the can. They
learn to Know their own loft even
if it is in a row of buildings exactly
alike, and rarely does a bird make
a mistake.
When the young birds are famil-
lar with their surroundings they are
! sent a mile away in a basket and
released to fly home. Then the dis
lance is increased to five miles, then
ten, and so on until by the end OF
the first year the best birds are
flying 20D miles and some even
500 miles.
From his naval experience Lieut..
McAtee says that out of the birds
that prove good homers, IL: the first
year 81 per cent will deliver mes
| age Satisfactorily. The birds that
do not have the homing instinct suf-
ficiently stcong or that have little
endurance are lost on the long
flights and the navy does not try
to recover them. 1t wants only the
sure swift birds to carry its i'm
portant messages. A bird that comes
in regularly with mud on its feet
has the habit of stopping to drink
and it is likely to be struck from
the navy roll for lack of stamina or
a deficient sense of responsibility.
OF Many Colors
When you first go into the navy
lofts you are struck with the great
variety of size, coloring, and mark
ing in the pigeons. Blue is the
ground color of all pigeons, and the
rainbow colored birds in a prize
loft are all descendants of the ledge
roosting blue rock dove. But by
use of sports and by skillful In
breeding and cross-breeding man
has developed no less than 400 sepa-
rate types as distinct as 400 flow
ers. There are large ana small va
~rieties. Some are mahogany red,
others buff yellow, others silver. n
a great many are gray, black n
white. Some are almost n solid
color and others are beautifully
marked in bands and splotches. AL
f1lOSl an, iiCtudihS IL PNhS
birds. have irridescent colorings In
the neck feathers.
After you note the variety you
begin to see how many of a single
breed are in a loft and you onder
how the breeders can tell the birds
apart. Yet they know every n OF
the good homers and other fine
birds. Out of a cage of 100 birds
the Navy pigeon trainer a point
out number $40 that flew 500 miles
from Napponee, Indiana. to wash
ington in IL hours, 81 minutes, with
a cross wind. He points out Truth
full. a blue bird with white flights
across her wings. This pigeon Is
always reliable. She has flown 500
miles three times this year and came
out first in one race and second IN
another.
There Is no guess work about 1t.
The pigeon lover knows his bros.
Out at the Baird farm Jacobson
gave an exhibition Of his familiarity
with his birds. He went into a loft
of about 100 homers.
1T know practically every one OF
the 500 homers on the farm" he
said That one is 2S2." And he
pointed to a bird. Then with a skill