| Show 0 0 0 O 0 0 4 D T Nj understand d do you not boys YOU Y and girls that 9 a carrier pigeon nowadays need not be bo a bearer b in order to tn bo ho a good spec spee specimen men imen of tho the carrier pigeon variety The nie message messa e bearers are aro now properly called homers perhaps you can guess gues why because they thy more than any other animal love Jove home Take any pigeon away from rom the tho place it has learned to regard as its home and nn it will surely find Its Ita jt way WRY back back provided it has enough intelligence and strength to do 10 doCO CO o 0 Intelligence and strength are arc the chief reQuisites then in a homer which Is the highest type of pigeon Intelligence really means won wonderful wonderful wonderful keenness of or sight remarkable memory for tor land and water Vater marks and probably a certain kind of instinct which we cannot of or course under understand understand stand much loss lo describe Homers are Bre usually bred and kept In a loft cither built high or located In Ina ina a R high place so as to make malte a good land landmark landmark landmark mark Sometimes the tho entrance is gaily gally colored so as to be De conspicuous From babyhood the homers are per permitted permitted permitted to fly about the tho near neighbor neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood hood BO so as to practice finding homo home To encourage this habit they aro are sot set loose Joose before breakfast and hunger bunger is relied upon to bring brin them home homo at tho the proper time At 3 months ago age tho the young birds have havo developed both their home imme finding instinct to a considerable de le degree legree gree and strength of wings Their systematic training now begins bogins Early in the morning they are aro placed In closed and carried several hundred yards from irom home There they aro are released or tossed r JM I as trainers say They rise rhe straight y yup J Jup up in the air take a u look around spy sp tho the home loft and make maka straight for tor it Any bird falling to do this may be put down at once cs CoS hopeless hopelessly ly l inferior and not worth further training Each successive morning the same procedure roe dure Is followed but the dis distance distance distance tance is Increased and a different di dl direction direction is taken in each homers case Before long the distance has hos become b come half hal a n mile then it grows to a 0 mile finally to live Ove miles and so it goes until a trainer probably sees his hia homers finding home homo from a distance of ot twenty miles From this point on he ho will have to content himself with the tho survival of tho the fittest Only tho superior birds will develop under his training to the point po in t where even at nt a u distance of ot miles milos they will unerringly find homo home again The best of ot those superior birds are of ot course the ones who will cover the tho distance in the quickest time The rue training of ot homers Is for tor the tho most part a private sport In America but it is coming to be something of or oran an industry In one country cou Belgium it Is real really really really ly a D great industry The railways are constantly transporting thousands of ot the closed baskets containing homers destined for tor certain points where they tuey are arc to be bo tossed |
