. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. Pigeon houses of the upper Nile* Photo by J. H. Comstock. PIGEONS Teacher's Story HERE is a mention of domesticated pigeons by writers three thousand years ago; and Pliny relates that the Romans were fervent pigeon fanciers at the beginning of the Christian era. All of our domestic varieties of pigeons have been developed from the Rock pigeon, a wild species common in Europe and Asia. The carrier pigeon was probably the first to be specially developed because of its usefulness; its lo

. Handbook of nature-study for teachers and parents, based on the Cornell nature-study leaflets. Nature study. Pigeon houses of the upper Nile* Photo by J. H. Comstock. PIGEONS Teacher's Story HERE is a mention of domesticated pigeons by writers three thousand years ago; and Pliny relates that the Romans were fervent pigeon fanciers at the beginning of the Christian era. All of our domestic varieties of pigeons have been developed from the Rock pigeon, a wild species common in Europe and Asia. The carrier pigeon was probably the first to be specially developed because of its usefulness; its love and devotion to mate and young and its homesickness when separated from them were used by man for his own interests. When a knight of old started off on a Crusade or to other wars, he took with him several pigeons from the home cote; and after riding many days he wrote a letter and tied it to the neck or under the wing of one of his birds, which he then set free, and it flew home with its message; later he would set free another in like manner. The drawback to this correspondence was that it went only in one direc- tion; no bird from home brought message of cheer to the wandering knight. Now-a-days mail routes, telegraph wires and wireless currents enmesh our globe and the pigeon as a carrier is out-of-date; but fanciers still perfect the homer breed and train pigeons for very difficult flight competitions, some of them a distance of hundreds of miles. Recently a homer made one thousand miles in two days, five hours and fifty minutes. Read to the pupils "Amaux" in Animal Heroes by Thompson Seton to give them an idea of the life of a homing pigeon.. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.. Comstock, Anna Botsford, 1854-1930. Ithaca, N. Y. , Comstock Publishing Company