WONDERFUL PIGEONS. An Excellent Exhibition of Well-Trained Birds.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 248, 21 March 1888, Page 4

WONDERFUL PIGEONS. An Excellent Exhibition of Well-Trained Birds.

Tiikrk were more fast flyers in Newark yesterday than were ever coliected in that city befoie. They were the celebiatcd homing pigeons of the country, as highly prized by their owners as was old Hambletonian by Mr Hy.xdick, and many of them would be as difficult to purchase. These messengers I o f the air are on exhibition at 94 Marketstreet, at the annual show of the Federation of Amorican Homing Pigeon Fanciers. They are from almost every State in the Union, and number in all about 500. The value of the cheapest of the birds is 25d015. a pair, while there are seven buds that it would cost 500dols. to make a pot pie of. The majority of birds, however, are not for e-ale, and there are fifty no money could buy. The birds are displaced in wire cages, about two feet square, with muslin roofs, so they can bump their heads as much as they want to without hurting. Some of the cages are on tables, which extend the length of the hall, and others are arranged along the walls. Fanciers from all over the country arc pi^ent, and they say it is the best show of the kind ever given in this country. Each bird present has it own history. If they could talk, what sights they could tell of. Many of the birds look very frowsy. Their feathers are rumpled. This has been caused by their enemies on their flight. Pounds of shot are fired at. them and every hawk on their route has had a bhy at them. Birds have been known to be ripped open by hawks and yet have reached their lofts. Some have been co budly damaged that they could not hold either food or water, there were so many talon- holes in them. Pigeons that have been nearly blinded have made safe voyages nearly half across this continent, resting but little on their way. There are birdßpresent that have been "jumped over" 500 miles, and yet gone home. The term implies carrying a bird o> r er a route over ! which he has never flown. There are four birds in the show that have made more than 510 miles, air line, in one day. These champions are Alexander the Great, owned by A. S. Kenzel of Philadelphia ; Jim and Little Wonder, owned by Charles Meyers of Philadelphia, and Jocko. The latter is owned by Thomas Brooks okGermantown, and is the one day champion, of the world. Jocko's record is 510| miles in thirteen hours and thirty seconds. Mr Brooks also owns the celebrated bird Ariel with a record of 451 miles in 588 minutes, showing the averaged 1422 yards a minute from the time he was liberated until he reached his home loft. Thomas Bowennan> of Irvington shows the bird Albright, named after the Hon. Andrew Albright of Newark. - Albright has aho best record in the world for fast flying. It came 300 piles, air line, at the rate of 1464 yards a minute. A. Perry Baldwin of Newark shows thirty-five birds. Of these five are of the six parents of all the birds that ever flown more than 1,000 miles on one trip in the world. The birds that secured the 1,000mile record are the Arnoux hen, named after Charles T. Arnoux of the New York Press Club, which is the only hen that has accomplished 1,000 miles, her record being1,019 miles, and the birds Alabama and Montgomery, each with a record of 1,051 miles. As the former first returned, it is the champion of all long-distance flyers. Mr Baldwin also shows Ever Ready, which came home 750 miles, with the second-best record for speed in the United States. Wandering Jew, which Henry Ward Beecher took with him when he went abroad, and liberated when 350 miles at sea, with a message wired to his tail for the Plymouth flock ; Always Ready, which flew 650 miles alone ; Dude, the second youngbird that ever returned over 500 miles ; Grace Ida, with a 750-mile record, and Every Time, that has gone 500 miles and more several times. Besides these Mr Baldwin has seven sisters of the Arnoux hen in the show. These are all very valuable. Samuel W. Taylor of Baltimore shows more than fifty birds with records of from 200 to 525 mile?. One is named Dan Newhall, after the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's Secretary, who is a great fancier, and has originated the "Nowhall strain," now well known in Europe. Mr Taylor also shows a black cock that has just passed his twenty-sixth birthday— a very remarkable age for a homing pigeon that has been constantly flown. Among the other wellknown exhibitors are John Shepherd, A. H. Krugev and Joseph Milligan of Philadelphia; W. B. Garrabrant, George H. Bowei'man and William Bennett of Newark. The latter owns the famous bird Sargent Dunne r which flew from Montgomery, Ala., to Ne>ywark (884 miles), in fourteen days and six hours, the best speed record for a long distance ever made, and H. Walker of Newark besides. The show will continue two days* The New York Sun.