People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1897 — Homing: Pigeons. [ARTICLE]

Homing: Pigeons.

When pigeons were to be sent back and forth, it has been usual to keep two sots, with their respective homes at either end of the course, and when they have reached their homes to carry them hack to the places from which they are to be dispatched. An ingenious process has been devised to overcome this difficulty and cause the birds to fly with equal certainty in both directions. Pigeons, for example, whose home is in Paris are confined for -several days at St, Denis and fed there at a stated hour every day with some favorite food which is not given them at their real home. They become in the course of time familiar with their new home and its choice dishes. When set at liberty, they start off at once for Paris without forgetting the good things they enjoyed at St. Denis. When they are to be sent back, they are made to fast a little while, and are then let loose at about feeding time at St. Denis. They go thither, and, when they have their own way, time their going so as to bo there at the exact moment of feeding. Birds have thus been taught to fly back and forth regularly between places 80 miles apart.—G. Renaud in Popular Science Monthly.