The value of these birds as carriers of messages was interestingly demonstrated at the siege of Paris, as it used to be in the French war seventy years ago, before the invention of the electric telegraph. It now appears that carrier-pigeons may be employed with advantage in taking messages from boats engaged in the Scottish herring-fisheries, when no species of telegraph is available. The following notice of the fact occurs in the Fishing Gazette:

'The experiment which was tried last year of employing carrier-pigeons for the purpose of bringing early intelligence each morning from the fishing-ground of the results of the night's labour, is again being resorted to this season, and with the most satisfactory results. One of the birds is taken out in each boat in the afternoon; and after the nets have been hauled on the following morning and the extent of the catch ascertained, the pigeon is despatched with a small piece of parchment tied round its neck, containing information as to the number of crans on board, the position of the boat, the direction of the wind, and the prospects of the return journey, &c. If there is not wind to take the boat back, or if it is blowing in an unfavourable direction, a request is made for a tug; and from the particulars given as to the bearings of the craft, she can be picked up easily by the steamer. The other advantages of the system are that, when the curers are apprised of the quantity of herrings they may expect, they can make preparations for expediting the delivering and curing of the fish. Most of the pigeons belong to Messrs Moir and Son, Aberdeen. When let off from the boats, the birds invariably circle three times round overhead, and then sweep away towards the land with great rapidity, generally flying at the rate of about a mile per minute. Two superior birds in Messrs Moir's possession have occasionally come a distance of twenty or twenty-five miles in as many minutes; and on Tuesday one of these pigeons came home sixteen miles in the same number of minutes. Another of Messrs Moir's pigeons flew on board the Heatherbell on Tuesday afternoon off the Girdleness, bearing a slip of paper containing the intelligence that the boat from which it had been despatched at 11.54 had a cargo of twenty-five barrels of herrings. The pigeons require very little training, and soon know where to land with their message. A cot has been fitted up on the roof of Messrs Moir's premises at the quay for the accommodation of the birds, and they invariably alight there on their return from sea.'

According to the London newspapers, there was lately an amusing experiment to test the flight of carrier-pigeons against the speed of a railway train. The following is the account given of this curious race, which took place on the 13th July: 'The race was from Dover to London between the continental mail express train and a carrier-pigeon conveying a document of an urgent nature from the French police. The pigeon, which was bred by Messrs Hartley and Sons of Woolwich, and "homed" when a few weeks old to a building in Cannon Street, City, was of the best breed of homing pigeons, known as "Belgian voyageurs." The bird was tossed through the railway carriage window by a French official as the train moved from the Admiralty Pier, the wind being west and the atmosphere hazy, but with the sun shining. For upwards of a minute the carrier-pigeon circled round to an altitude of about half a mile, and then sailed away towards London. By this time the train, which carried the European mails, and was timed not to stop between Dover and Cannon Street, had got up to full speed, and was proceeding at the rate of sixty miles an hour towards London. The odds at starting seemed against the bird; and the railway officials predicted that the little messenger would be beaten in the race. The pigeon, however, as soon as it ascertained its bearings, took the nearest homeward route in a direction midway between Maidstone and Sittingbourne, the distance "as the crow flies" between Dover and London being seventy miles, and by rail seventy-six and a half miles. When the continental mail express came into Cannon Street station, the bird had been home twenty minutes; having beaten Her Majesty's royal mail by a time allowance representing eighteen miles.'