le for all
ocean steamships to carry them, so that if any vessel were disabled at
sea, and, as has often happened, met with no other steamer, by their
means word might be sent back to shore. An interesting article on this
very subject was published recently in one of the daily papers, giving
an account of an experiment that was tried and with great success. Five
thousand pigeons were put on board the _Manoubia_, sailing from Saint
Nazaire, and at distances varying from one hundred to five hundred miles
were liberated.

[Illustration: CARRIER-PIGEONS COMING TO THEIR COTE.]

The results were beyond the most sanguine hopes, for within a shorter
time than had been deemed possible they had all, almost without
exception, returned to their pigeon-houses.

It would not mean a great addition, either in money or care, to have
these birds on every ship that left the port, and certainly great good
might be done and endless anxiety saved in many instances, if
intelligence as to a disabled ship's whereabouts could reach her owners.

In order to make carrier-pigeons at home in any place they must be taken
there very young. Even birds six weeks old will make their way back to
the nest, the instant they are liberated, as distance is as nothing to
them. One pair sent out to Wilmington, Delaware, were kept shut up for
six weeks, fed and watered with the utmost care and regularity. The
seventh week they were set free, and at once disappeared. Their owner
telegraphed to their old home, and received an answer that the birds had
arrived there before his telegram was received.

One pair of the pigeons, which were named Annie Rooney and McGinty, were
given to a boy of eleven who lives in New York city. They were very
young when they were given to him, and he determined to train them so
that they would always make their home at his house. For six weeks he
kept them in his room in a mocking-bird cage, and was very careful about
the food and water. In the day-time he put the cage outside the window,
and when it rained covered it with a cloth, for pigeons, while they use
a great deal of water both to bathe in and to drink, do not like to be
out in the rain.

When six weeks were passed he opened the cage door and fastened it so
that the birds could go out. At first they were contented to poke their
heads out of the open door, but finally, after a great deal of
conversation (pigeons are great conversationalists), out they flew. They
seemed har