[Footnote 1: Continued from _Scientific American_ of July 11, p. 23.]
_France_.--The history of the aerial postal service and of the carrier
pigeons of the siege of Paris has been thoroughly written, and is so
well known that it is useless to recapitulate it in this place. It
will suffice to say that sixty-four balloons crossed the Prussian
lines during the war of 1870-1871, carrying with them 360 pigeons, 302
of which were afterward sent back to Paris, during a terrible winter,
without previous training, and from localities often situated at a
distance of over 120 miles. Despite the shooting at them by the enemy,
98 returned to their cotes, 75 of them carrying microscopic
dispatches. They thus introduced into the capital 150,000 official
dispatches and a million private ones reduced by photo-micrographic
processes. The whole, printed in ordinary characters, would have
formed a library of 500 volumes. One of these carriers, which reached
Paris on the 21st of January, 1871, a few days previous to the
armistice, carried alone nearly 40,000 dispatches.
The pigeon that brought the news of the victory of Coulmiers started
from La Loupe at ten o'clock in the morning on the tenth of November,
and reached Paris a few minutes before noon. The account of the
Villejuif affair was brought from Paris to Tourcoing (Nord) by a white
pigeon belonging to Mr. Descampes. This pigeon is now preserved in a
stuffed state in the museum of the city. The carrier pigeon service
was not prolonged beyond the 1st of February, and our winged brothers
of arms were sold at a low price at auction by the government, which,
once more, showed itself ungrateful to its servants as soon as it no
longer had need of their services. After the commune, Mr. La Perre de
Roo submitted to the president of the republic a project for the
organization of military dove cotes for connecting the French
strongholds with each other. Mr. Thiers treated the project as
chimerical, so the execution of it was delayed up to the time at which
we saw it applied in foreign countries.
In 1877, the government accepted a gift of 420 pigeons from Mr. De
Roo, and had the Administration of Post Offices construct in the
Garden of Acclimatization a model pigeon house, which was finished in
1878, and was capable of accommodating 200 pairs.
At present, the majority of our fortresses contain dove cotes, which
are perfectly organized and under the direction of the engineer corps
of the army.
The map in Fig. 1 gives the approximate system such as it results from
documents consulted in foreign military reviews.
According to Lieutenant Grigot, an officer of the Belgian army, who
has written a very good book entitled _Science Colombophile_, a
rational organization of the French system requires a central station
at Paris and three secondary centers at Langres, Lyons and Tours, the
latter being established in view of a new invasion.
As the distance of Paris from the frontier of the north is but 143
miles at the most, the city would have no need of any intermediate
station in order to communicate with the various places of the said
frontier. Langres would serve as a relay between Paris and the
frontier of the northeast. For the places of the southeast it would
require at least two relays, Lyons and Langres, or Dijon.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THEORETIC MAP OF THE FRENCH SYSTEM OF MILITARY
DOVE COTES.]
As Paris has ten directions to serve, it should therefore possess ten
different dove cotes, of 720 birds each, and this would give a total
of 7,200 pigeons. According to the same principle, Langres, which has
five directions to provide for, should have 3,600 pigeons.
Continuing this calculation, we find that it would require 25,000
pigeons for the dove cotes as a whole appropriated to the frontiers of
the north, northeast, east, and southeast, without taking into account
our frontiers of the ocean and the Pyrenees.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--BASKET FOR CARRYING PIGEONS.]
A law of the 3d of July, 1877, supplemented by a decree of the 15th of
November, organized the application of carrier pigeons in France.
One of the last enumerations shows that there exist in Paris 11,000
pigeons, 5,000 of which are trained, and, in the suburbs, 7,000, of
which 3,000 are trained. At Roubaix, a city of 100,000 inhabitants,
there are 15,000 pigeons. Watrelos, a small neighboring city of 10,000
inhabitants, has no less than 3,000 carrier pigeons belonging to three
societies, the oldest of which, that of Saint-Esprit, was founded in
1869.
In entire France, there are about 100,000 trained pigeons, and
forty-seven departments having pigeon-fancying societies.
_Germany._--After the war of 1870, Prussia, which had observed the
services rendered by pigeons during the siege of Paris, was the first
power to organize military dove cotes.
In the autumn of 1871, the Minister of War commissioned Mr. Leutzen, a
very competent amateur of Cologne, to study the most favorable
processes for the recruitment, rearing, and training of carrier
pigeons, as well as for the organization of a system of stations upon
the western frontier.
In 1872, Mr. Bismarck having received a number of magnificent Belgian
pigeons as a present, a rearing station was established at the
Zoological Garden of Berlin, under the direction of Dr. Bodinas.
In 1874 military dove cotes were installed at Cologne, Metz,
Strassburg, and Berlin. Since that time there have been organized, or
at least projected, about fifteen new stations upon the frontier of
France, upon the maritime coasts of the north, or upon the Russian
frontier.
Berlin remains the principal rearing station, with two pigeon houses
of 500 pigeons each; but it is at Cologne that is centralized the
general administration of military dove cotes under Mr. Leutzen's
direction. The other stations are directly dependent upon the
commandant of the place, under the control of the inspector of
military telegraphy. The Wilhelmshaven dove cote, by way of exception,
depends upon the Admiralty. In each dove cote there is a subofficer of
the engineer corps and an experienced civil pigeon fancier, on a
monthly salary of ninety marks, assisted by two orderlies. In time of
war, this _personnel_ has to be doubled and commanded by an officer.
The amount appropriated to the military dove cotes, which in 1875 was
about 13,000 francs, rose in 1888 to more than 60,000 francs.
As a rule, each dove cote should be provided with 1,000 pigeons, but
this number does not appear to have been yet reached except at Thorn,
Metz, and Strassburg.
Germany has not confined herself to the organization of military dove
cotes, but, like other nations, has endeavored to aid and direct
pigeon fancying, so as to be able, when necessary, to find ready
prepared resources in the civil dove cotes. The generals make it their
duty to be present, as far as possible, at the races of private
societies, and the Emperor awards gold medals for flights of more than
120 miles.
On the 13th of January, 1881, nineteen of these societies, at the head
of which must be placed the Columbia, of Cologne, combined into a
federation. At the end of the year the association already included
sixty-six societies. On the 1st of December, 1888, it included
seventy-eight, with 52,240 carrier pigeons ready for mobilization.
The first two articles of the statutes of the Federation are as
follows:
"I. The object of the Federation is to unite in one organization all
societies of pigeon fanciers in order to improve the service of
carrier pigeons, which, in case of war, the country must put to
profit.
"II. The Federation therefore proposes: (a) To aid the activity of
pigeon-fancying societies and to direct the voyages of the societies
according to a determined plan; (b) to form itinerent societies and on
this occasion to organize expositions and auction sales of pigeons;
(c) to maintain relations with the Prussian Minister of War; (d) to
obtain diminutions and favors for transportation; (e) to make efforts
for the extermination of vultures; (f) to obtain a legal protection
for pigeons; and (g) to publish a special periodical for the
instruction of fanciers."
_Italy._--The first military dove cote in Italy was installed in 1876
at Ancona by the twelfth regiment of artillery. In 1879, a second
station was established at Bologna. At present there are in the
kingdom, besides the central post at Rome, some fifteen dove cotes,
the principal ones of which are established at Naples, Gaeta,
Alexandria, Bologna, Ancona and Placenza. There are at least two on
the French frontier at Fenestrella and Exilles, and two others in
Sardinia, at Cagliari and Maddalena. The complete system includes
twenty-three; moreover, there are two in operation at Massoua and
Assab.
The cost of each cote amounts to about 1,000 francs. The pigeons are
registered and taken care of by a pigeon breeder (a subofficer)
assisted by a soldier. The head of the service is Commandant of
Engineers Malagoli, one of the most distinguished of pigeon fanciers.
We represent in Fig. 2 one of the baskets used in France for carrying
the birds to where they are to be set free.--_La Nature._
* * * * *