Learning About Birds Through Stories

21. CARRIER-PIGEONS
22. A CARRIER-PIGEON THAT HELPED SAVE VERDUN
23. HOW FAST BIRDS FLY
24. LOUIS AGASSIZ, THE NATURALIST
25. AUDUBON, THE FRIEND OF BIRDS

DID you ever hear of a pigeon telegraph system? That sounds rather curious, does it not? But pigeons are very swift on the wing, and long before the days of telegraphs and telephones many messages were sent great distances by trained carrier-pigeons.

Away back in old Egypt, in the days of the Pharaohs, these birds were used to carry important news. Especially were they used by seafaring men, who carried them on their ships in readiness to convey messages back to those at home. There are inscriptions on some of the old Egyptian monuments telling of messages received in this way.

In Greece and Rome, carrier-pigeons were also used. They took all sorts of messages sometimes friendly notes, and again most important state dispatches. When we consider that these pigeons can travel at the rate of forty to fifty miles an hour, and that they can fly for several hours without rest, we can understand that in those days when there were no telephones, telegraphs, or trains, the pigeons were very important helpers of man. Nor has their usefulness, in spite of modern inventions and rapid means of communication, been altogether abandoned or superseded up to the present day.

In times of war, carrier-pigeons have been of great value in sending word from one part of the army to another, or in sending messages from those inside of a besieged city to friends outside.

Sometimes in ancient warfare the enemy used trained hawks to attack and injure the pigeons so that they would fall to the ground and thus not reach their destination. For this reason several pigeons were often sent out at the same time with the same message, so that one might be sure to reach its destination safely.

Pigeons are not trained as are dogs and ponies. Not at all. This is the way it is done: At first the bird is taken in a basket or box a short distance from home and freed; the next time it is taken farther; and so on, until experience and strength have been gained.

The bird's first wish when set free is to get home as soon as possible. The carrier-pigeon is a great lover of home, and for this reason is sometimes called the homing-pigeon. Straight up in the air it rises to a considerable height, then, circling around a few times, it gets its bearings, and, swift as an arrow from a bow, it starts off in a direct line for home.

Pigeons are very strong on the wing, even flying fast against a hard wind. They have great keenness of sight also, and can see much farther than we can.

Their soft cooings in the dove-cote, or on the roof of the barn, are soothing and pleasant to hear. Yet with all their gentleness these birds have wonderful endurance and courage and are capable of making tremendous flights.

London has a parrot named Pete, known to be at least 126 years old. He was captured by a British soldier in India in 1801 and is now (1927) owned by Col. W. B. Ferris, of Philbeach Gardens, London.

The Australian bower-birds build bowers out of a clump of weeds or tall grass, through which they run and by means of which they play a very interesting and amusing game with pebbles, small stones, or pieces of broken crockery or glass.

The lyre-bird of Australia has a most beautiful and finely shaped tail, constructed like a lyre. Hence its name.

Australia abounds in black swans, lyre-birds, parrots, emus, and many other kinds of birds.

The emu of Australia is a large running bird, and is related to the African ostrich. Its plumage is of a dark color, and is long and hairlike. It has very small wings, and cannot fly; but, like the ostrich, it runs with great speed.

As might be expected, the humming-birds build the most delicate and beautiful nests known, while the most remarkable nests are those built by the American orioles and the weaver-birds of Africa and India.

The ground-sparrows are much smaller than the common English sparrow. They build their nests on the ground, well protected and out of sight, under some little shrub, bush, or tree, or alongside some fence near the habitations of man.

Wrens raise two broods each year; bluebirds, two and sometimes three broods a year.

The peacock has the most beautiful tail of all the feathered tribe. When spread out like a fan, its colors are gorgeous, and the arrangement of its many-hued patterns most wonderful to behold. No wonder the peacock is proud. It has something to be proud of.

But nature distributes her gifts, and does not bestow all her choicest tokens on one species. The birds that are given the brightest and most attractive plumage are generally poor singers, while the most charming songsters are not, as a rule, the most beautiful in appearance. Each have their excellencies and attractions.

TRUE to their name and faithful to their homing instinct, carrier-pigeons played their part in the great World War of 1914-1918. In fact, one of these famous birds, "Marie" by, name, has been given credit for having carried the message which proved to be the turning-point in the war, and brought it to a speedy close. She has been called "Marie, the war-winner."

Another pigeon that did yeoman service, won fame, and is regarded as a war hero, lived for ten years after performing its wonderful feat in the face of battle. Upon its death, December 18, 1926, a cable message from Paris, gave the following account of it:

One of the feathered heroes of the great war a carrier-pigeon which helped save Verdun has just died of old age. The bird had a wound stripe on its leg band, and was one of the government's pensioners, having been given a home and a larder by a grateful nation.

Through a barrage of shrapnel the pigeon, in 1916, carried a message that kept Froideterre Hill from being captured. In an order of the day the army cited the pigeon for "having maintained communication with the front line when all human means failed." In its flight through the barrage the pigeon was hit by a shell splinter that carried away its claws.

The pigeon will be mounted and placed in the Verdun war museum.

IT is not a difficult thing to learn how fast animals, especially tame animals, can run. How long it takes them to traverse a given distance in other words, what their speed is--can be ascertained to a fraction of a second.

The fastest record for a running horse is a mile, or 5,280 feet, in one minute and thirty-three and one-fifth seconds. This was made by an American-bred horse named "Caiman," on a straight mile course, at Surrey, England, July 13, 1900.

This means a speed of 57 feet per second, or traveling at the rate of about 39 miles an hour.

The whippet, the fastest running dog, can run 200 yards, or 600 feet, in eleven and one-fifth seconds. This means 54 feet per second, or at the rate of about 37 miles an hour. Traveling at this rate, he could run from New York to Chicago, a distance of 909 miles, in twenty-four and one-half hours.

But to ascertain how fast birds fly has been a more difficult thing to determine. Careful observation, numerous experiments, and scientific measurements of the speed at which different birds travel, however, have given us quite definite and reliable information regarding this.

From these we learn that the carrier or homing-pigeon is capable of maintaining a sustained flight, for several hours at a time, at the rate of from forty to fifty miles an hour, owing to the individual bird and weather conditions, and that some of these pigeons have attained a speed approaching close to a mile a minute.

The starling can fly at the rate of 46 miles an hour, though its usual speed is more like 33 miles an hour.

The jackdaw can fly at the rate of 38 miles an hour; the parrot finch, 37 miles; the finch and rook, 33 miles; crows and gulls, 31 miles; and the sparrow-hawk, 26 miles an hour.

Some hawks, however, can fly at the rate of 200 feet per second when in a dive, which means a speed of 12,000 feet, or more than two and one-quarter miles, per minute, or at the rate of 136 miles an hour. This is fast flying.

Some wild geese can fly from 100 to 120 feet per second, or at the rate of from 70 to 82 miles an hour.

The canvasback wild duck, in calm air, can fly from 120 to 160 feet per second, or at the rate of from 82 to 109 miles an hour. They are fast fliers. The ordinary rate at which most wild ducks fly, however, is more like 48 or 50 miles an hour.

The common swift, it is said, makes 70 miles an hour in normal flight.

Migratory birds, like the robin, blackbird, bluebird, mocking-bird, and thrasher, on an ordinary migratory flight, make about 20 miles an hour; the martin, about 30 miles an hour; swallows and pigeons, 26 to 34 miles an hour.

The eagle, as he pursues or descends upon his prey, flies at a tremendous speed, not as yet definitely known.

The humming-bird, though so small, is also a rapid navigator of the air. Its normal speed is approximately between 6o and 8o miles an hour. A wonderful little bird is he, darting like a gleam of light from place to place.

Fast as the birds can fly, man, with his airplane, has been able to outfly them all. Darius Green and his flying-machine is no longer a joke. He flies! But he learned how from the birds.

An interesting coincidence: W. T. Trowbridge, the American poet who wrote the amusing takeoff poem "Darius Green and His Flying Machine," lived to shake hands with Wilbur Wright, one of the two Wright brothers who at Kitty Hawk Beach, Florida, in 1903, made the first successful flight in a heavier-than-air machine.

HAVE you never wondered how we know so much about animals and birds? How do men find out so much about their ways of life and their instinct?

There are men who seem to be born for the purpose of finding out these things, and then telling us about them.

Louis Agassiz was one of these. When he was a little child he began to take delight in birds and beasts, fishes and insects. He felt toward them as if they were his friends.

When he was a little older he was never so happy as when tramping the fields and searching along the banks of a lake or stream to find some new creature.

When he was in college he was familiar with every beast, knew the different kinds of birds from hearing their songs, even when far away, and could give the names of all the fishes.

He was very fond of pets, and at one time had in his room about forty birds which made their home in a small pine tree set up in one corner.

Agassiz started in the world as a poor boy, but he became one of the most learned men and greatest teachers of his kind. He made known to us a great many things that we did not know before about our fellow creatures. -John T. Dale.

PERHAPS you have heard of the Audubon societies, which are scattered all through the country, having for their object the saving of the birds. These societies are named after John James Audubon, who was born in 1780 and died

Audubon never killed a bird except to study it. When his little son, Victor, grew old enough, Audubon taught him to paint, and to recognize the different birds and know their habits. He was willing to travel hundreds of miles, over mountains, through swamps and woods, far away from where any people lived, if he could only find a new songster. His collection of bird pictures is considered the finest ever made, and is very valuable.

Audubon lived to be an old man, and when he died was buried in New York City. It is said that trees near Audubon's grave are a favorite haunt of myriads of swallows that gather there on warm summer evenings. It is very impressive to see the timid, graceful creatures circling above the grave of the gentle Audubon, who did more than any other man to protect them from harm.