THE PACE OF A PIGEON.
• That most English habit of flying Homer pigeons has been indulged with unusual thoroughness this autumn. At certain stations on the railways the porters have been largely occupied in the work of releasing crates full of birds and recording the moment of their "enlargement." The spectacle of a thousand or so of these birds soaring up, making a quick circle or two, and then dashing for home and glory is like none other ; and those who watch follow older critics and writers in telling fairy stories of the speed of the pigeon's flight. But these birds are very carefully timed, and the results accord closely with the latest views about the speed of migratory flights. If a pigeon keeps up a speed of forty miles an hour it does well. There is probably no species of bird, no individual bird that can approach the speed of a good aeroplane over more than a very short course, if that.
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