THE REPORTED RETURN OF SIR JOHN ROSS'S CARRIER-PIGEONS TO AYR.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 520, 9 April 1851, Page 4

THE REPORTED RETURN OF SIR JOHN ROSS'S CARRIER-PIGEONS TO AYR.

The following letter on (his subject, containing some curious information, appears in the Matichester Guardian. •' Those who know anything of the habitF of pigeoni, or the careful training nqnisiie to enable them to accomplish long flights, will not easily be led astray by the clumsy invention of some wag, desirous ol practising upon th? credulity of the public. Two pigeons were taid to hive been seeu, at a considerable diiunce from their cot, because it was shut up. Tuii would be con. trary to their habits ; they would remain at their old habitation until nearly famished w:th hunger. Again, one of them had the featheis ruffled or disordered under the wing, at if a letter had been fastened there. Now, an express flyer of pigeons would just as soon think of tying a letter to a b'nd's tail as under its wing. The practice is to roll iome fine tissue paper neatly round the leg, secured with thread or silk; and than the bird can travel without the paper causing residence or impediment to its flight. Then, more marvellom still, the creature mutt have flo»n 2000 miles i a considerable distance of which must have been over snowy or frozen regions. In modern times, no such distance at 2000 miles have been accomplished by any trained carrier pigeon. The merchant* and manufacturers o Belgium have done more to test the capabilities of pigeons than any other people- There annual pigeon races produce an excitement almost equal to our horse races In 1844 one of the greatest races took place, from St. Sebastian in Spain, to Vervier. The distance would be about six hundred miles. Two hundred highly-trained pigeons, of the best breed in the world, were sent to St. Sebastian, and only seventy returned. la another race to Bordeaux, eighty-six pigeons were

sent and twenty returned. A strange and mistaken notion prevails that it is only necessary to send it carrier pigeon away from home and that its instinct will invariably lead it back. Let any one try the experiment, and send the best-bred carriers at once to Birmingham, and I venture to assert that not one will return to Manchester without previous training — vi 2., taking them •hort distances at a time and then increasing by degrees. It has been asserted that pigeons are guided on their return home from long distances by instinct. Instinct is said to be unerring ; not so the pigeon's (light. If instinct be the guide, why not fly through fogey weather with equal speed and facility as in clear sun&hine*? This it is notorious they cannot accomplish. When the ground is covered with snow, pigeons (.cera to miss their points of guidance and arc lost, This wonld seem to favour the opinion that they travel by sight, and are less indebted to intinct than i* generally imagined. Carrier pigeons do not fly at night; they settle down if they cannot reach their home by the dusk of evening, and renew their flight at dayhght next morning. The Telocity of a pigeon'i flight seems to be greatly over-rated ; and, no doubt, your readers will be surprised to learn that a locomotive railway engine can beat a carrier pigeon in a distance of 200 miles.— l am, &<\"

Papal Bulls. —As the meaning of the word " bull," when usnl in this sense, may not be generally known the following explanation of it may be acceptable. In ancient times a sen I enclosed a case was attached to these documents by a string. This case, commonly of lead, was called bulla, a Latin word which originally signified a bubble ot water, and afterwards anything which had the circular shape of a bubble of water ; such as amulets made of gold or silver, which were worn by the free-born children of ancient Home. In process of time the name of the case was transferred to the document, and papal o-dinnnces were called bailee, i. c., " bulls." They are written upon parchment, in the Gothic character. First com >s the name of the Pope — Gregorius, for instance, servus servorum Die ; then the general exordium, from the first words of which the bull is distinguished. Thus: In tana domim, the famous ban bull of Urban V., in 1362, against heretics, Dominus ac R>de»itor Hotter, the bull suppressing the Jesuits; Ecclesia Ghristi, the hull confirming the concordat with France in 1801 ; De Salute A'xmarum, that relative to the eitablishment ot the Catholic Church in Prussia. They have generally a large leaden seal appended to them, on the obverse of which are impressed likenesses of the apos'les Peter and Paul, and on the reverse the name of the reigning Pontiff, Rome, July 16.— According to an ancient usage, on the day of St, Peter, after the Pontifical mass, the Pope stops in the centre of the church to lUien to the prayer of a lawyer of the Consistory, rf questing him to renew the excommunication formerly directed against the King of Naples for having stripped the Church of a portion of the patrimony of St. Peter. The Pope pronounces the excommunication and removes it immediately. This year Pius IX , full of the recollection of the recent hospitality he had recei»ed from that Monarch, felt somewhat embarrassed. But the Cardinals having insisted on his making use of the only arm left the Church, the Pope pronouueed the excommunication uf the King, and immediately afterwards gave him absolution, and passed a glowing encomium on the virtues of the magnanimous Ferdinand.— Times.