In more modern times, the carrier has been employed to convey intelligence, which required immediate com munication to the Turkish government, which practice subsisted in the time of Sir John Mandeville, who tra velled in the 14th century, and is alluded to by Baumgar ten, who was at Alexandria in 1507. At a later period, there was a regular chain of posts, kept up by high tow ers, between 30 and 40 miles asunder, provided with pigeons, and sentinels stood there, constantly on the watch, to secure the intelligence communicated to each, and transmit it along. The notice was inscribed on a thin slip of paper, enclosed in a gold box of small dimen sions, and as thin as the paper itself, suspended to the neck of the bird : the hour of arrival and departure were marked at each successive tower, and, for greater secu rity, a duplicate was always dispatched two hours after the first.
It was not uncommon, in the course of the 18th century, for the English merchants at Aleppo to obtain intelli gence of the arrival of their vessels at Scanderoon by the same means. Whatever could be comprised in few words, was written on a slip of paper, and fastened to the pigeon, which immediately took flight. It was usual to send down the pigeons from Aleppo, that they might always be ready at the port, and no delay ensue. Maillet, the French consul in Egypt, relates, that a merchant of Aleppo, hav ing accidentally killed one of these feathered messengers, was the first to learn that a scarcity of galls prevailed in England, and profiting by the intelligence, he made a speedy transaction, by which he gained 10,000 crowns. This practice of employing pigeons, in Syria, has been discontinued.
We are not aware that the carrier pigeon, and its kin dred species, have been used in Britain for the regular conveyance of written intelligence. But some years ago there were instances, and perhaps not uncommon, of a pigeon being let fly at the moment of an execution at Tyburn, whereby the relatives of the unfortunate crimi nal might be warned of his fate. In the latest thnes, they have chiefly been converted to use, in announcing the issue of wagers between places far asunder; and consi dering the rapidity of their flight, certainly they arc not unsuitable messengers. Nevertheless the carrier pigeon is not the only bird which the ingenuity of mankind has entrusted with being the bearer or information. The swallow bas been thus employed, though not in a sys tematic manner; and the ancients relate that one of the kings of Egypt had a crow so well trained, and which had been so useful to him, that after its death he pre served it in a tomb.
The carrier is naturally endowed with the faculty of returning to its usual place of habitation; hut certain precautions have been observed to render its mission more secure. It is only used during the time of incuba tion, or while it has unfledged young: besides, a kind of training is adopted, whereby lesser distances are passed over in its return, before the full flight is required. The
Turks take a pigeon, on gaining its ultimate strength, and first carrying it half a mile in a basket, allow it to fly : it is next carried a whole mile, and so on, increas ing the distance to twenty or thirty miles. The same was done between Aleppo and Scanderoon, and, at last, when judged to be sufficiently trained, those which had young were sent down to the port. When the pigeon was allowed to escape, its feet were bathed in vinegar, with the design of keeping them cool, and to restrain the bird front alighting in quest of water, by which the billet which was fastened under its wing might be in jured, or the journey prolonged. But it was necessary that there should be no great interval after removal from its young, and if a fortnight elapsed, the return of the pigeon could not be 'died upon.
Immediately on escaping, the carrier towers to an im mense height, and then commences its progress with in conceivable rapidity. Though it be difficult to ascertain the velocity with which a bird cleaves the air, it has justly been assimilated to the flight of an arrow front the bow, and some have ventured to hazard conjectures on the subject. Mr Cartwright, who lived so long in a de solate region, computed the rate at which certain wild ducks flew, to be 90 miles an hour: the celebrated Spal lanzani found by experiment, that a swallow flew from Bologna to Modena, which are 20 miles distant, in 13 minutes; and he affirms that the common swift can fly 60 miles in a quarter of an hour. We do not know that the carrier is endowed with such incredible speed; but Dandri, an Arabian author, maintains, that it can tra verse a space equal to about 45u miles in a day. MaiIlet says that, when fairly in flight, it does not occupy above half an hour in ten leagues ; and D'Arvieux, in calcula ting the distance between Scanderoon and Aleppo at 40 leagues, observes, that pigeons pass from the one to the other in three or four hours. Ilowever, when employed by the English factory of the latter place, they have been known to perform that flight in two hours and a half. A well authenticated experiment is described, where a pigeon being let fly from St Edmund's Bury in England, reached Lot don in the same time, the distance being 72 miles. Most probably the rate of flight is not less than 30 miles an hour, and perhaps considerably more. Sec Bochart Hirrozoicon, tom iii. col. 15, 16. Levden, 1692. JElian Va•ia historia, lib. ix. cap. 2. Plinii Ilistoria x. § 34. Maillet Description de l'Egy/ite par Nascries, part ii. p. 140 in •to. Pennant's British Zo ology, VOL ii. Treatise on Domestic Pigeons, p. 75. Russel's -Vat nral Theory of ,ileppo, vol. ii, p. 203, 429. (c)