Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-14

Washington, D. c., July 11.-More
people breed racing pigeons than race
horses. II is claimed that more people
are interested in pigeon racing thar
in horse racing. 1t is even p~rophesied
that pigeon racing will rank soon as
one Of the national sports.
These facts may be astonishing to
the man who has never watched a
thoroughbred homing pigeon come IN
at the end of al exciting oOO-mlie
race. To the pigeon fans of the coun-
try the only wonder is that anyone can
be oblivious to the fascination OF this
noble bird.
There are $4,000 breeders of pigeons
in the United States. They range
from the country boy who has a few
pairs to the commercial breeders who
sell several hundred squads a mouth.
In this city there are two places where
the pigeon can be seen at its best. One
Of these is the naval air station where
the homers are bred for the service.
The other is the farm of James Bard
which is said to contain the most ex-
pensive and complete pigeon lofts IN
the country.
During the war the army and navy
gathered together the best possible
collection of homing pigeons and the
best experts to handle them. Now
the navy still uses pigeons as messen-
gers between naval planes and battle
ships. But the army practically has
d~isbanded it's bird messenger service
and many valuable birds are now IN
private hands.
Baird has among his 1000 birds
many fine pedigreed homers. And not
only that, but he has two experts
Lieut.. j. ]. McAtee and Albert Jacob
son, training them. Lieutenant Me
Aztec, who organized the naval pigeon
service, is called the greatest author
ity on racing pigeons in the country
Jacobson was formerly in the depart
ment of agriculture and he has the
reputation of being the foremost han
der of racing pigeons. Both men
know pigeons, not only their habits,
but their psychology and personality as
well.
They tell you that some pigeons will
fly best when they have eggs in the
nest; others fly best when the young
birds are just Matched. And they will
point to any number of pigeons in a loft
and tell you their peculiarities in this
line.
Baby Birds Strong Attraction
A homer flies best when it has some
thing to fly to. If there are babies
female free 500 miles away it will fly
straight for the home loft. Nothing
will stop it. 1t will not alight for
food or water. 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 its babies. and when II
does arrive it feeds them before i,
feeds itself.
The babies are not left uncared fol-
during these long, all day flights. Both
the male and the female always take
turns sitting or the nest and feeding
the young. II one of the pair is away
the other will guard the nest faithfully
for as long as two days. BY expert
mental work Lieut.. McAtee has ever
trained a bird to stay with the nest foi
four days in the absence Of the mate
At four weeks the baby birds are
at the age when they may be eaten a,
squads. At six weeks they have lost
the plumpness that makes them de
sirable as food. They are full grown
The baby homers that survive the
hotel menu age are soon ready FOL
training. They have the instinct oi
orientation, no one knows why or how
But they have to be trained to use j
for the benefit of man.
The young. full-fledged birds ara
called to be fed by r~attling grain in
can. They learn to know the trainer
and the sound and to come when h,
calls them. They are let out for ex.
rcise. They fly round and rount
the loft while their wings gain strength
until the trainer calls them down b,
rafting the can. They learn to know
their w loft even if il is in a row o
buildings exactly alike. and rarely doe
a bird make a mistake.
When the young birds are familia'
with their surrounding they are sen
a mile away in a basket and released t,
fly home. Then the distance is in
creased to five miles, then ten, and 81
on until by the end of the first yea
the best birds are flying 20 miles an,
some even 500 miles.
From his naval experience Lieut.
McAtee says that out of the birds tina
prove good homers. in the first yea
81 per cent will deliver messages sat
~isfactorily. The birds that do not hav
the homing instinct sufficiently stron
or that have little endurance are los
on the long flights and the navy doe
not try to them. 1t wants onl
the sure, swift birds to carry it's i'm
portant messages. A bird that come
in regularly with mud on its feet ha