Carrier-Pigeons

Abstract

IN NATURE (vol. xviii. p. 682) it is stated that carrier pigeons are being “turned to useful account” in a new direction in Germany, for Consul Ward writes to the Foreign Office “that the successful results attained by the establishment of communication between the two Eider lightships and the Port of Tönning, in Schleswig, by these means has led to its organisation” elsewhere. This mode of communication is, however, not new, as carrier-pigeons were employed early in this century as a means of communication with the Bell Rock Lighthouse, as mentioned in my late father's “Account” of that work. The pigeons passed between the lighthouse and the shore—a distance of eleven miles in eleven minutes. The employment of these birds, however, was, I suppose, found to be more curious than convenient, for they have long since ceased to be employed. The pigeons were presented to the establishment by the late Sir Samuel Brown, R.N.