|
Racing Pigeons by Silvio
Mattacchione Racing pigeons—more accurately described as
racing doves—are, in fact, one of man's oldest feathered companions. Pigeons
date to antiquity! Far from being a lowly servant, the racing pigeon was the
special prerogative of kings, princes, and nobles of all kinds. During these
past times it was contrary to law for a common man to own pigeons. The great empires of Carthage, Egypt, and Rome
made full use of them in many ways including the production of squabs (a
great delicacy) as well as high-grade nitrogen (droppings) for their fields.
The aforementioned civilizations also used pigeons in a great network of
advanced communication. They kept emperors in touch with the most remote
areas of their lands during a time when horse and riders or caravans would
have taken weeks to deliver the same information. Caesar made formidable use
of them during his conquest of Gaul. It is now extremely difficult to imagine that
our feathered companions were at one time the ultimate communication tool
used in the greatest of all communication networks! It is further difficult
to comprehend that these little warriors of the airways made possible both
great empires as well as great fortunes. As already mentioned the Egyptians
and Persians trained rock doves to carry messages. They were an exceptionally
reliable method of communication hitherto unheard of. As these empires spread
across the then known civilized world capturing country after country they
discovered that these other countries had also trained rock doves. These
countries included China, Greece, Italy as well as India. Among these many
countries China had in fact organized a postal system based upon the use of
messenger pigeons. Knowledge is power, and at one time the surest and
swiftest way to deliver this knowledge was with racing pigeons. One would, at first glance, believe it
difficult to draw a connection between racing pigeons and the Rothschild
banking dynasty. However it seems that they increased enormously their
fortune in 1815 with the exceptional help of what was then called a carrier
pigeon. When Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, Count Rothschild knew of his
defeat long before any other persons in England. He had received this
critical information via carrier pigeon. This advance knowledge allowed him
to make critical decisions that made an enormous fortune possible. Here is a
prime example of the reality that, knowledge and its timely use, in fact, are
the ultimate in power! In the 19th Century Julius Reuter founded the
news service that globally still caries his name 150 years later. The Reuters
news service was actually founded as a line of pigeon posts. The Reuters
pigeons helped the banks of Aachen make fortunes and avoid bankruptcy. Today, as in the past, speed and endurance and
the ability of our racing pigeons to orient quickly are the key to success.
Pigeon fanciers today are as enthralled with this exceptional bundle of
courage speed endurance and intelligence as were the originators of those
couriers countless centuries ago. Even today, as the unbridled power of
technology creates new communication frontiers, one can imagine, given
certain circumstances, that the racing pigeon can again be a powerful
communication tool. Several countries, even as we enter the 21st Century,
make use of this remarkable bird in military communication and rescue
applications. It was recently reported in The Globe Daily that future
communication could be literally for the birds! Claire Wolfe, the author of
I'm Not A Number, comments that in the near future pigeons could actually be
used to ensure the secrecy of messages. She indicates that safe communication
modes could replace—for some freedom seekers—unsafe communication modes like
the internet and telephone. Well, we would then have come full
circle—low-tech replaces high-tech for reasons of security Is she right? Time
will tell, but certainly an interesting twist! Currently all over the world, racing pigeons
are cultivated for their beauty, their will to survive, their tenacity, their
incredible speed, and their legendary endurance—in short, the marvelous
ability to race to their individual homes at breakneck speeds. From the
deserts of the Middle East, to the plains of South Africa, to the industrial
towns of Europe, to the ancient cities of China, and finally, to the
skyscrapers of America, there exists a bond that goes beyond color, creed,
origin, class, and politics. Lovers of racing pigeons are part of a worldwide
fraternity that has been with us from the dawn of time itself! The modern racing pigeon has been developed
over the past 150 years to fly farther and faster and more often than any
performances hitherto imaginable. Now, if memory serves me correctly, the
racing pigeon is the product of the mixing together of several different
breeds of pigeons including Horseman, Dragoon, Smerle, the carrier
pigeon, and others. In different countries, different pigeon
breeds formed the base from which the fanciers worked to develop their homing
pigeons too lesser or greater degrees of perfection-usually lesser. The
modern racing pigeon is therefore a hybrid and therefore not a pure breed at
all. In point of fact, the modern homing pigeons is
not a pigeon at all, but more correctly speaking-—that is, from an
ornithological point of view—a dove. That is why in Dutch it is more
correctly referred to as a postduiven (messenger-dove). The most successful modern racing pigeons were
developed in Belgium. This development began in approximately 1810, and by
1868, W.B. Tegetmeier in his Pigeons: Their Structure, Varieties, Habits, and Management
could write: "From the fact that many of the breed
come from Antwerp, they are not infrequently known as Antwerp's or Antwerp's
Carriers...in rapidity and power of flying these birds far exceed any other
variety of pigeon with which I am acquainted...This power of flight is
conjoined with an attachment to home that is not surpassed by that of any
other pigeon". In time, these Antwerp carriers, as well as
the short-faced pigeons of the province of Liege, were crossed. The homing pigeon of Belgium is the result of
the crossing of the Cumulet of Antwerp with the Smerle of Liege. The Cumulet was described by Mr.
Andre Coopers, secretary of one of the Belgium Societies in 1868, as being of
Flemish origin with white eyes, and having a habit of flying so high that it
was gone from sight for several hours. The Smerle, he advises, is of Wallon origin, with
a short beak and having several recurved feathers on its neck. It did not fly
as high or as long as the Cumulet, but it was much more rapid. Finally, in
Belgium, the Bec-Anglais (Dragoons) were also crossed, and
so these three varieties formed the basis for the appearance of the better
built, stronger, faster, and more precisely cultivated homing instinct of the
modern form of homing pigeon. As a breeder of racing pigeons, I enjoy the
challenge of producing a bird of great strength and beauty, with tenacity and
endurance and the consummate ability to orient. A bird that can fly week
after week with a minimum of training, a bird that can excel under almost
anyone's care. The name of this strain is Spanjaards/Janssen,
named after their originator, Mr.
Gerrit Spanjaards of Holland. I began where he left off, and hopefully
others will begin where I leave off. It is wonderful to think that the birds
that were carefully bred by Spanjaards
in Holland for 37 years are now successfully flying the skies of Australia,
Germany, Holland, Canada, the USA, China, Taiwan, and Mexico! |