Of the other kinds we may speak of the Frilled pigeons, with the breast feathers frizzed like a shirt frill; the Fan-tails, the tails of which spread out in the fashion of those of the peacock; the Russian Drum-pigeons, which do not coo, but make a sound like the roll of a drum; the Capuchin, with a white hood and tail and a dark tuft on its forehead; and the Lark, Magpie, Swallow, and Starling-necked pigeons, all with something to suggest these titles.
So far we have said nothing of the Carrier pigeon, for that claims a place for itself. It is a bird of noble bearing, with no show of fine feathers, since it looks more like a wild than a tame bird, but with a splendid power of flight, one which no other pigeon can match. Its great value is that when taken to a long distance it has a wonderful power of finding its way home. This makes it of much use as a messenger bird, a kind of natural telegraph which was used centuries before any other telegraph was thought of.
Pigeon Types. Carrier and Short Faced Tumbler
No one knows how the carrier pigeon finds its way home. Most likely its keen power of sight has much to do with this. When set free, it flies upward into the air in widening circles to a great height, as if trying to see something known to it in the far distance. In the end it darts off in a straight line, which ends only when it has reached its mate in the home dove-cot. Of course it needs to be trained to this by shorter flights, but a well-trained pigeon will find its home when a hundred miles or more away. The message is written on a piece of very thin, light paper, tied under the bird's wing or to its leg.
The history of the carrier pigeon goes far back in time. In the days of ancient Greece winners in the public games sent word of their victory to their friends by pigeon post. A real pigeon postal-system was founded in the Arabian empire by the Sultan Noureddin, who died in 1174, and this was kept up until 1258, when Bagdad, the capital, was taken and destroyed by the Mongols.
In later years, during the wars of Napoleon, large gains are said to have been made by the Rothschilds, the famous bankers, who received news of great events by pigeon post and used those news for stock buying and selling. The newspaper press has also made much use of messenger pigeons. The greatest case of this was in 1870, when the city of Paris was besieged by the German army and all the telegraph wires were down. News was sent out from Paris, in microscopical writing so fine that a single bird could carry thousands of messages at once. Military pigeons are still trained for use in case any war should arise. In the German city of Cologne there is a station with five or six hundred pigeons, trained to fly to the fortified places of the empire.
THE OSTRICH AND ITS SPLENDID PLUMES
After our talk about the pigeon, with its swift powers of flight, we now come to a bird which has no power of flight at all, yet which is of much value to us from the splendid feathers of its wings. It would take strong wings indeed to lift from the ground the ostrich, the largest of all birds, standing six to eight feet high. But what it lacks in wings it makes up in legs, for it is a wonderful runner, being able to outrun the fastest horse. As it runs it spreads its wings, which seem to act as sails.
The ostrich has often been tamed and thus it may be classed with birds of the home, though much too large for the poultry yard. It grows quite friendly to those who have it in charge, but does not like strangers and is apt to attack them in a violent manner. As these birds are plentiful in the great Sahara desert, they were often kept by the Romans and used in their public shows. They were also used as food, and a glutton among the Roman emperors is said to have had the brains of a large number of ostriches served up to him in a single dish.