homing pigeon

training homing pigeons

Nine,86 NxcoL, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon [April rAuk
Las Vigas, 7,900 ft., July 30-31, 1942; 2 c•, 1 nine, Cofre de Perore, 10,500 ft., July 30-
August four, 1942 [males averaged 46.3 grams (40.0 to 53.7); two adult females, 38.3
and 39.8 grams]. This sparrow is feature of the coniferous belt of vital
M•xico. It oeeurred on all of the high mountains visited with the aid of us (Cofre de Perore,
Orizaba, Popoeatepetl, Iztaeeihuatl, Tres Cumbres, and so forth.) at elevations ranging from
7,900 feet at Las Vigas to nearly 14,000 feet on Mount Popoeatapetl. It preferred
open meadows and become one of the not unusual timberline sparrows. One of the women
from Las Vigas is a almost full-grown yotmg of the .Yr. The person female had a
well-evolved brood patch and the testes of the two adult males had been significantly enlarged.
*Jimophila rufescens rufescens (Swaiuson), Rvs•¾ S•'.IRROW.--I nine, Jalapa,
four,500 toes., July 2, 1941. Widely dispensed in vital Veracruz, preferring thickets iu
the vicinity of water.
Junco phaeonotus phaeonotus Wagler, M•xm•N JvNco.--1 c•, I_as Vigas, eight,000 feet.,
August four, 1942; 1 c•, Cofre de Perote, 10,500 ft., August 4, 1942 (testes small;
weights 21.5 and 22.5 grams). 3. Not unusual breeding fowl within the conifer-dad regions of
the Mexican plateau, occupying an altitudinal variety from near 7,000 feet to timberline (specimens were taken on Mr. Popoeatepetl at 13,500 feet).
Department of Fish and Game

lost homing pigeons

College Station, Texas
THE HOMING ABILITY OF THE CARRIER PIGEON
ITS VALUE IN WARFARE s
BY LIEUT. J. A. C. NICOL• ROYAL CANADIAN CORPS SIGNALS
THE homing potential of the service or homing pigeon •is, in a fashionable
manner, well known--a lot so that this, their leader function, is
often hired in metaphor and simile as an expression of precision and accuracy which would rebound much to the discomfiture
of the writer have been all in full ownership of the applicable statistics. In the
light of new occurrences, the concern isn't without topical hobby
and the biologist, on examining the facts and experiments defined
underneath, can be able to fill in some of the gaps which puzzle the pigeon
enthusiast. For the latter always is aware of his birds properly, develops
his personal approach of selecting the wheat from the chaff, from private
experience constructs his personal theories, but all too often fails to view
his subject objectively and shrouds his conclusions with an anthropomorphic and teleological aurora that defies clear imaginative and prescient.
It is the purpose of the writer to review in this paper the recognised
achievements of the homing pigeon; the uses to which they have been
1 Submitted for ebook in accordance with the Provisions of Canadian Army Orders and with
the approval of Canadian Military Headquarters. Passed by means of Military Advisers to the Press Censorship, War Office September 22, 1944. Cecil M. Wills, Major G. S.
2 The terms "service" and "homing" pigeon are used interchangeably in this paper,
VoL 62] 1945 J NICOL, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon 287
installed peace and conflict (defined for the gain of interested readers
who won't have had access to the scattered literature in this
concern); and to discuss the approaches in which they had been used within the
present struggle in to this point as it can be instructed. Finally, an attempt could be
made to correlate the problem of the homing capability of this domesticated species with the homing competencies of migratory birds in widespread
with the intention to discover what mild the former will shed at the concern as a
whole.

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Darwin (1) has shown that the homing pigeon has been evolved
from the wild rock-dove which still breeds in western England and
which, by way of endured artificial choice, has been developed into the
chicken employed nowadays. Moreover, the present day homer is the result of
the cross-breeding of several wonderful types of home pigeon and,
as such, originated in the nineteenth century despite the fact that best in the
beyond hundred years have its homing abilties been broadly used. Pigeon
racing inside the past has been a completely famous recreation in western Europe
and even extra so in Great Britain. To a smaller extent pigeon races
have been held in North America wherein a number of the occasions were
characterized by abnormally lengthy distances. Annually, the younger
and the old hen races have attracted many individuals and as the
result of the selection which those races have exercised, a chicken robust
in physique, which can be relied upon to go back to a recognized loft after
right training, has been received. Certainly the homer is larger than
its wild progenitor. Little is understood of the homing capacity of the rockdove whose principal flights appear to be from feeding grounds to social
nesting web sites. Consequently, the subsequent is the most which
can be predicated :--

how do homing pigeons navigate

1. Selection has desired homers with satisfactory body and homing
capability. It is not possible to differentiate the relative significance
of those two elements within the case of any prevailing hen.
2. The cutting-edge homer possesses homing capacity at the least as pleasant as
that of the natural species.
Details of schooling applications used by pigeon racers are as numerous as
the quantity of members and every gradation can be observed from the
case of the man who swears via the outcomes of night time water or chimney
sweepings to the individual that calculates his system with picture
accuracy. The following, however, is a preferred and consultant
picture. Young birds are purchased or hatched in a loft and are
settled in that web page because the. It everlasting domestic. They are weaned and
progressively learn to fly brief distances. By judicious interest and
managing, the fancier accustoms the chicken to his presence. They are
nine.88 Nmos., Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon [April rAuk
launched day by day for workout and that they fly approximately the on the spot loft area,
progressively turning into more potent at the wing and getting to know to maintain
dose flock formation ("kitting"). They are fed handiest on go back to the
loft and birds which fail to enter the entice readily may be penalized
till their performance improves. Some specific name is utilized to
name the birds .Returned to the loft, normally the sound of dry corn damn
in the feed tin. After this preliminary training, birds are selected for
the exceptional occasions and are sent away varying distances on the flight
route which will be followed during the actual race. They are launched
at those factors and fly domestic. A program of tosses for an extended-distance
race might be quite as follows: •/• mile; •/•; 1; 1; 2; three; 5; 10;
sixteen; 25; 40; 60; ninety; 130; one hundred seventy five; and 250 miles. And inthefinaltoss,
on the time of the real race, the chicken may be jumped to 500 miles.
Breeding is applied as a stimulus to return by using sure fanciers who strive
to set up that the racing birds may have eggs or young at a few particular level of development at the time of the race, and breeding can also
be hired also to adjust the time of the molt in order that the fowl will
have the most number of pinions on race-day.
This homing potential of the pigeon, in commonplace with the migratory
behavior of other species, early attracted notice. Most of the classical
references to message sporting by pigeons may be discounted due to
technical inaccuracies, and it isn't always until the 19th century that
we discover genuine instances. During the siege of Paris, homers have been
completed of the metropolis with the aid of balloon and have been used to carry correspondence inscribed on collodion movie into the beleaguered metropolis. The share of returns was approximately 17 per cent. Despatches were additionally carried with the aid of
pigeon at some stage in the siege of Ladysmith and to isolated garrisons in
Nigeria shortly after the Boer War. These birds have additionally been
employed through various prominent newspaper agencies to achieve
exact information of wearing activities in time for their several versions.
But it changed into in the battle of 1914 to 1918 that the homing pigeon turned into first
appreciably used as a method of communication. Here it performed a
notable r61e in lots of fields. Birds have been despatched out with trawlers and
mine-sweepers which at the beginning lacked wireless as a method of verbal exchange. They had been dropped with the aid of plane over enemy-occupied territory to
be used by agents and sympathizers. And, finally, lots of birds
were utilized by the offerings on the western the front as an aid to conversation.
The approach hired via the army became in short as follows. Lofts
have been settled somewhere at the back of the strains, fre.Quently at divisional headquarters and ideally dose to a sign office or message centre.
Young birds have been favored and punctiliously conversant in their area
Vol. Sixty two'[ 1945 I Nmos, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon 9.89
by means of lengthy residence and exercise flights. They were then carried away
growing distances from the loft alongside the route which would be
observed at some stage in actual operations and launched to fly domestic. Finally,
whilst skilled, they have been carried up to battalion and corporation headquarters in appropriate panniers by despatch riders and orderlies before an
attack and have been released by using commanders to send reviews and requests
for support to headquarters in rear. Osman (2) states that such birds
horned faithfully in ninety nine in line with cent of the instances.
The benefits of using pigeons on this type of conflict have been
severa. It become very inexpensive of human lives for the reason that many runners
would otherwise have been killed in crossing shell-torn united states with
messages, while the birds had been hard to shoot on the wing and will
bypass over shelled areas with relative impunity, and even when wounded
might press on so long as they might fly. They had been now not disturbed by way of
shell hearth so long as the loft itself become no longer hit nor badly shaken. They
were lots less prone to certain varieties of poison gas than guys.
Skilled operators had been no longer required to launch them in forward and
exposed areas. Against this should be set the reality that they had been
unreliable in fog, smoke or darkness; that they could only carry
messages in one course, and that they lacked mobility in the sense
that long house changed into required earlier than the bird might be relied upon as
a messenger in any locality.

how do homing pigeons navigate

On the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, the usage of pigeons in warfare
required re-examination since it was quickly obvious that among the
indicators issues of the War of 1914 to 1918 were no longer applicable to this
new struggle with its terrible alterations in pace and method. Pigeons
are once more being carried through naval vessels and additionally by using planes of the air
forces. The latter have advanced special techniques for his or her release
from aircraft but, interesting as such information are, they lie outside the
scope of the present paper. Among the ground forces, with the appearance
of more cellular war in 1940, when inflexible strains became replaced by
defended localities and maneuver again became feasible, the possibility
of using pigeons as a method of conversation have become questionable.
They are obviously of greatest cost to forward elements whose manner
of communique are slight. In such regions, telephone lines at the start
are flimsy and exposed to common interruption, and wireless is of
quick variety and regularly hampered through atmospherics at night. The use
of visible signalling and messengers is situation to interruption and
high-priced in employees. Caeteris paribus, pigeon service may want to parallel
or supplant such mea•s of communique and, within the case of isolated
events reduce off from the relaxation of the pressure, the birds may be dropped
by way of parachute. Much paintings and ingenuity have been expended in this
[Auk 290 Nmox,, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon
subject by pigeon fanciers in the armed forces and their results are
discussed below.

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We may consider the several problems which have been met as
follows:
1. Training pigeons for maximal mobility.
2. Training birds to fly at night.
3. Training birds for two-way communications.
Problem 1.--Training birds for maximal mobility.
Details of such training no doubt vary among the armies of different
nations, but the following will serve as a representative example.
Small lofts are used, either light enough to be manhandled or mounted
on trailers. Young birds are chosen, usually about five weeks old, and
are settled in these lofts. The initial part of their training consists of
making the birds strong on the wing, "kitting" (i.E. Flock formation)
and teaching the birds to trap readily. Fundamentally the last
mentioned is based on a simple conditioned reflex established through
calling the birds into the loft by rattling feed in a can or blowing a
whistle. Then, as soon as the birds pass through the trap, they are
given their allowance of corn. Thus the birds come to associate
certain sounds and the act of trapping with food. Immediate and
automatic trapping is obviously of great importance when the recovery
and delivery of a message in the shortest possible time are set at a
premium. At this stage the lofts are moved short distances daily in
order that the birds will not become irrevocably accustomed to any one
spot. When strong on the wing they are packed in panniers and
carried away short distances for release. Following this preliminary
training, lofts are moved greater distances, up to 20 miles or more
every three to seven days, and at each location the birds are given
tosses in a direction set as the axis of advance. A limit of these tosses
is tentatively placed at 50 miles. In cases where time of return is
very long or some birds are lost altogether, earlier stages in the training
must be retraced and repeated. Finally, the birds are released in pairs
at suitable intervals so that they cannot kit together and message
carriers are affixed to their legs so that they can become accustomed to
wearing them.

how do homing pigeons work

The objects sought in such a training program are patent. Owing
to the facility with which a bird localizes itself to any one place, the
lofts are moved frequently to prevent the crystallization of such a
fixation of association. There is no good reason for assuming that, as
a result of such training, the bird's basic tendency to become absolutely attached to a given spot is weakened since a kit of such mobile-
Vol. 62] 1945 .I Nzcox Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon 291
educated birds, whilst mounted in any particular vicinity for numerous
weeks or months, are simply as hard to settle in a brand new locality as birds
that have by no means been moved any time from a hard and fast loft. What it
does accomplish is to save you the development of a close affiliation
of loft with a specific. Locality. During the primary day, preferably in
past due afternoon or night, the birds are launched for workout. They
fly approximately the loft area for ten or fifteen mins and are then referred to as in
for food. On subsequent days they're given tosses at selected and
increasing distances, e.G., 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 25 and forty five miles, respectively.
These degrees are usually on a few predetermined axis of improve.
Tosses are given most effective in clean climate and all through sunlight hours. Visual
schooling is obviously the simplest issue taken into consideration. In the initial flight
the chook sees the topography of its instant surroundings and establishes an association of domestic and meals with the ones details of gadgets and
spatial dating which differentiate one spot from any other. On
next tosses it progressively learns the floor capabilities of the ground
it's going to traverse, with every step in its training based on that which
preceded it, and the greater the range of such flights, the faster
does it home. Thus far the story is easy, however it's far essential to investigate
all those instances in which the chicken fails to go back or in which the time of
go back is abnormally lengthy.
The first instance is that which is known amongst fanciers as a "flyaway." They say the birds are "flighty" and, casting a measured
look on the sky, note that the air is misty. Whatever terminology is
hired, it stays a fact that birds, now and again, whilst first released
in a new locality, will fly about the loft for a brief time after which
step by step veer off and fail to return even though the loft is in complete view,
the birds are hungry, and the loftsman to whose voice they're accustomed is looking them continuously and damn the feed can. Subsequently the birds can be discovered on the preceding region of the loft,

how do homing pigeons work

quietly feeding at the floor at the precise spot wherein the loft have been
positioned. They might also visit numerous such old loft web sites in flip and, if the
loft has been moved many miles from the final function and the birds
are in absolutely new u . S . Which they've in no way traversed before,
they may disappear 'into the blue.' The factors running here are
complex but, in thus far as they will be analyzed, the subsequent appears to
be the explanation. The loft represents to the chicken meals, water, an area
to wash, salt and grit of which it is inordinately fond, a place to roost
(and every chook inside the loft chooses its own unique perch) and sooner or later
safety. The potency of this last issue is seen in the-reluctance
with which the birds will input the loft after it has been invaded with the aid of
some predator, consisting of a cat or stoat. But the sight of the loft itself
9.99. NxcoL, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon [Auk [April
is not enough for the bird which, as the result of all its training, is
accustomed to direct itself to the locality of the loft by the aid of
certain visual landmarks and, when in the immediate vicinity of the
loft, to its exact location by the peculiar topographical relationship of
that spot to its surroundings. Therefore, no matter how strongly the
conditioned reflex that signifies food may be established in its neural
system, it may obey impulses correlating flight to visually known
localities with food and fly off to some previously significant locality.
The bird has seen little or nothing of its new location, only part of the
panorama is true the loft--and that is situated in false surroundings.
To overcome this difficulty the following procedure has usually been
found successful. The birds are kept enclosed for some time at the
new location before they are released and they are permitted to view
their surroundings either by turning the loft about regularly or by the
use of an aviary; they are given a few grains of corn before release to
correlate feeding with their new surroundings; and they are released
late in the day when fading light discourages extensive flight, since the
pigeon is essentially a diurnal bird.
Falling within a similar category are those eases in which the bird
is required to fly over old flight routes. Although the bird may have
been thoroughly trained over part of the new route and may have
successfully horned on frequent occasions to its loft, yet, when tossed
over areas which it has traversed on earlier occasions when its loft was
differently situated than at present, it may descend and fail to return.
Here again, latent memory predominates, reinforced by the presentation of visually known landmarks and divorced from the pull which
would be exerted by the features of its true loft site, and the bird
obeys the more immediate call. Figure 1 represents one of the several
such eases which have come within the writer's ken. Movements of
lofts are depicted numerically in the order in which they occurred;
position 6 was reached approximately six weeks after position 1 was
occupied. Tosses are shown by the length and direction of arrows.
These were, in general, north until position 6 was reached. Here it
became necessary to train birds south of the station to fly over route q•.
Tosses e, • and •' were successful but only 40 per cent of the birds
returned from toss • and only two birds out of 30 from toss q•, although
the loft had been in position for three weeks before the last two tosses
were essayed. Consequently, south of position 6 the result was a
failure. It is apparent from this example that the use of pigeons in a
withdrawal where they may be required to fly over old and disused
flight routes may present insurmountable obstacles.
Of the additional factors, with the exception of natural and artificial
Vol, 62] 1945 I 1NTICOL, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon 298
Legend:

racing homer

-->D•recti0n •(
Distance • Toss
T•x•r-•om 1.--Training of birds over disused flight routes.
Loss of life-dealing businesses, which may additionally hamper or prevent the chook's
go back, a different might be described which falls inside the writer's
revel in namely, person of the terrain. Civilian fliers are
agreed that pigeons are reluctant to move large our bodies of water and
hilly us of a and, inside the latter ease, tend alternatively to comply with valleys and
gaps inside the hills. Therefore, whilst education birds to fly over hard
terrain, the exercise has been to toss birds at consecutive factors which
link up a •ght direction following valleys and gaps and which outflank
hilly barriers. Figure 2 offers an example of problems encountered
in such education and an answer that changed into found. Contours above four hundred
feet are proven at 50-foot vertical periods. L represents the position
of the loft; factors A, B, C, D, E and 17, in that order, are points at
which the birds have been tossed. One hundred per cent go back of birds
tossed in good time turned into skilled from points A to D. Birds have been
very sluggish in returning and 10 to 15 in step with cent losses have been encountered
once they were launched at points E and 17. For the closing  factors
successive tosses at Dz, Ez, 17•, G and H had been substituted. In these
eases the birds horned in accurate time and losses had been negligible, one to
two in line with cent. All revel in in education the carrier pigeon emphasizes
the important element which imaginative and prescient plays in its homing capability. In
294 •co•, ttoming A bility of Carrier Pigeon April Auk
T•XT-VmURE 2.--Training of birds in hilly usa.
The on the spot case beneath discussion,rregular terrain delimited the
imaginative and prescient of the fowl. Tosses at t3 and F had been fantastically unsuccessful,
and this could be ascribed to the hills and dills which lay throughout the
birds' route. Yet on subsequent tosses, when points have been observed
alongside low floor linking water courses among hills and open united states of america,
an awful lot extra fulfillment changed into attained. The hen is balked via steep rises
where surface features gift sharp transitions and its flight consequently has a tendency to turn out to be canalized along routes where the landscape
presentations inconsequential alteration.

english carrier pigeon

Problem 2.--Training birds to fly at night.
Since the homing pigeon is largely a diurnal chicken it is very difficult
to educate as a night time flier. Much evidence from competitive races indicates
that in lengthy flights the pigeon will alight at nightfall and maintain its
flight at dawn the following day. Such birds in cross-channel races have
remained overnight on ships at sea; and instances of return substantiate
this hypothesis. However, sure British fanciers have recorded
achievement in education their birds to fly in twilight in cases in which their
lofts had been located at distances greater than common from the point
of release, and the time of flight might be expected to exceed the hours
of daylight. Priestley (three) records that in the warfare of 1914 to 1918 a hit experiments were done inside the British Army on night
flying. The birds have been given tosses at increasingly greater distances
VoL sixty two] 1945 ] NICOL, lionting Ability of Carrier Pigeon 295
from the loft and the lure turned into illuminated with a lamp of low candlepower shielded from a'6rial statement. Similar work has been carried out
within the present war. The loft is static; that is to say problems are so
superb on this form of education that it isn't always viable to transport the birds
at common durations. The birds are given tosses from twilight on into
darkish at distances which boom as much as a maximum of 20 miles. The
birds take longer to go back than through day. Of the numerous techniques of
training the following appear to have attained equal achievement:
1. Birds are stored through day in a darkened loft that's illuminated
within after dark.
2. The loft isn't always darkened for the duration of the day nor illuminated at night time
and the birds are released for the duration of daytime for normal exercise
flights.

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Three. The trap of th• loft is illuminated with a susceptible mild or the roof or
facet blanketed with a white marker. The writer's experience is that
birds will trap more without difficulty while the trap is illuminated at night time.
Problem &--Training pigeons for 2-manner provider.
Normally the pigeon will fly simplest over one route of its route and
should be carried to the factor of launch. Its homing propensity depends
on the attraction of the loft and all that this structure represents.
Within this loadstone the subsequent factors may be differentiated:
breeding, food, salt, grit, shelter, roosting, protection. The method of
schooling pigeons to carry out a two-way provider consists of dividing
those factors between  factors. Breeding may be discounted due to the fact
it's far discouraged in military lofts. The birds are settled in a static loft,
placed in baskets, over excited a quick distance to a degree within
sight of the loft and fed in the basket. They are then released to fly
domestic. This manner is repeated and the birds learn to correlate the
role of the basket with meals. Gradually the basket is eliminated
farther away until the preferred transport point is reached. At each
level the pigeons should be proven the location of the basket and be
fed there. Then, on being launched from the loft, they take an immediate
course to the basket to be fed. Their messages may additionally then be removed
and new ones placed within the container and on release they fly back to
the loft. So stereotyped and unvarying is the pigeon's behavior that,
in the early levels of this education, before they have learned to correlate
the basket with food, they will not fly to it, even though it is in complete view
of the loft and bears evidence of meals, except they are first carried to
that position and fed there. This gadget of message sporting has
given superb results; the birds behave faithfully and do notable
provider, slightly slower on the homeward journey when they're
296 •,co•, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon [April [Auk
wearing one-16th of their weight in corn. The chief drawback
from the army factor of view is that one factor, the loft, have to be static
although the second one point can be altered at will.
•)I$CU$$IOlXl

The descent of the present day homing pigeon from the wild rock-dove
has already been cited and the arbitrary declaration made that
its homing ability is at the least same to that of the wild inventory; it could
even be conjectured that it has been augmented with the aid of selection, however of
this there is no actual proof. It is furthermore affordable to postulate
that the homing potential of the rock-dove and, component passu, the homing
pigeon, is, as a minimum in part, of the equal nature as that possessed via all
migratory birds. For functions of dialogue the migratory achievements of birds can be outstanding as follows:
1. The preliminary flights of birds of the 12 months to winter quarters which
they've in no way seen before and over routes which they may be
traversing for the primary time.
2. Second and successive flights of older birds to winter quarters
and the return of all contributors of the species to summer time breeding
grounds.
It is obvious from the nature of its education and the person of its
achievements that the homing pigeon will now not help in throwing light
on the primary problem. It is most effective within the limits of the second that a
suitable evaluation may be made. In each cases the birds are flying
to localities that have been visible as a minimum as soon as earlier than; in each cases
flight is possible over routes that have been traversed as a minimum as soon as.
The complete training of the pigeon is visible. The role of its loft
becomes thoroughly known. In its exercising flights it traverses many
miles of the encompassing terrain. Its tosses are gradually stepped up,
mile upon mile, with each toss dovetailing that which preceded it,
and with repetition the direction will become better recognised and the time of
return is shortened. The birds end up lost or will not fly in any respect under
unfavorable visual conditions. When unique schooling is undertaken to
educate birds to fly at night time, such training have to be achieved again in smooth
ranges in order that the birds are afforded the possibility of learning such
visual guides as may be apparent in dim mild. And, in the latter case,
the loft is handled in order that it can extra simply be seen within the darkness.
The pigeon tends to comply with low floor and valleys where imaginative and prescient is much less
constrained. Finally, while the chook is required to fly over each instructions of the path, both termini have to be recognised to the chook by means of specific
education.
Vol. Sixty two'[ 1945 J NICOL, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon 297
Nothing in such training applications as the navy employs or inside the
character of the flights required of the pigeon leads us to believe that
any feel apart from vision is hired by the fowl in proceeding from
point A to factor B. Even bad proof afforded through cases of no,
or overdue, go back emphasizes this end as inside the case of mobiletrained birds whilst the presentation of a desire among antique and new
flight routes and loft sites can also lead the fowl off course. This visual component of homing or migratory intuition--the memory of perceived
localities--is the only factor which need be evoked to give an explanation for
the phenomena to date discussed and by way of the guideline of financial system of speculation it's far reasonable to apply it to the second of these migratory
flights of wild birds defined on this section. In short, migratory
birds are guided by using landmarks which they have got formerly visible when
pursuing a course traversed on one or greater in advance activities. Suitable
evaluation can also be made with those severa cases in which
wild birds have been removed varying distances from their nesting
web sites and feature correctly returned domestic. The vacation spot of its
flight, as inside the case of the homing pigeon, may be identified with the aid of the
chook and in its preceding wanderings it could have visible part of the route.
Recognition need to now receive to instances of lengthy-distance flights.
In schooling for such races, tosses can be given as much as 250 miles, but in
the race itself, the bird may be taken many loads of miles and
as a consequence be launched over territory which it has never encountered in its
experience. Part of the route may even lie over featureless water.
Losses are extensively more in such long races and birds may be
substantially delayed. Comparison can be made with the analagous case
afforded by means of the experiments of Watson and Lashley (4) in which
Noddy and Sooty Terns were removed from nesting sites on the
Tortugas Islands within the Gulf of Mexico and carried for distances of
greater than 850 miles northward into regions in which those spedes are
not normally found. These birds horned efficaciously over water and
memory of landmarks may want to have performed no component in undertaking
that flight.
In end, it could be said that the homing pigeon commonly
utilizes landmarks which it has seen earlier than to guide it on its course.
But it is able to additionally efficiently domestic for lengthy distances over routes which
are abnormal to the bird. And in such cases so-referred to as "inherited
memory" can play no element since the course followed is selected arbitrarily through guy.
Su•_•¾
l. Carrier pigeons can be skilled to fly to loft web sites which can be
regularly changed at intervals of three to seven days.
FAuk 298 N,co•, Homing Ability of Carrier Pigeon tgpril
2. They may be skilled to fly brief distances at night time.
Three. By placing the loft at one point and feeding the birds at every other,
carrier pigeons may be made to fly over each directions of a route.
4. The pigeon makes use of visible aids in its flight. And all education
emphasizes this thing.
Five. Homing flights of pigeons may be in comparison to the ones migratory
flights of wild birds which are proceeding to locations previously
visited over routes traversed on one or greater earlier activities.
6. In long-distance races, pigeons are launched at massive
distances beyond the factor in their last education toss and are therefore forced to domestic over territory new to their revel in.
"Inherited memory" can play no element in such flights because the route,
decided on arbitrarily, bears no relation to the flight conduct of its wild
ancestry.
SOURCES
In the guidance of this paper the author has drawn upon sixmonths' experience with the pigeon carrier within the Canadian Army,
has watched the experiments achieved by way of British Army employees,
and has consulted the reliable commands of the Canadian and British
armies and the Royal Canadian Air Force. In addition, reference has
been made to the subsequent publications.
I. DARWIN, CHARLES
1859. The Origin of Species by using Means of Natural Selection. The Variation of
Animals and Plants underneath Domestication.
2. OSMAN, LIEUT.-CoL. A. H.
Pigeons inside the Great War. ("The Racing Pigeon" Publishing Co. Ltd.,
London.)
three. Pm•s•Y, R. E.
192 I. The Signal Service in the European War of 1914 to 1918 (France). (W. And
J. MacKay and Co., Ltd., Chatham.)
4. WATSON, J. B., AND LASHLE¾, K. S.
1915. Homing and Related Activities of Birds. (Washington.)
Second Canadian Corps Signals
Canadian Army Overseas