Abstract
About The Bird
I always have to chuckle when people look at my big, hulking Indian fantails and ask whether or not they are homers. It's not that their question is completely inane. It's just that so many people believe every pigeon is blessed with the remarkable talent, stamina and intelligence to find home. Actually the racing homer is a breed unto itself, a hybrid created over the years through careful crossing. Authorities generally concur that the racing homer is really a conglomerate of several bloodlines including those of the carrier, the dragoon, the smerle, the curnulet and the horseman.
Racing homers are not particularly beautiful if you have your heart set on ornate feathering or spectacular color. Fact is, a blue barred park pigeon bears great similarity to its racing brother. The feral may be somewhat smaller, may have less pronounced beak, eye cere, and wattle. But it wouldn't be a grievous blunder to confuse the two creatures based upon appearance. I've even known ferals to show a definite ability to return to a loft. It's an interesting correlation. Of course the thing that really sets racing homers apart from other pigeon varieties is what many people call an "internal mechanism" which enables the birds to return over and over again to the security of their loft environment, even if it should be located aboard a ship at sea. Pretty miraculous I must admit. And I must at the same time admit that this marvel still remains one of nature's mysteries.
Long before our modern-day racing homer was developed the world was using swift flying pigeons as feathered messengers. Even Hannibal was purported to have had a few in his company when his elephant army crossed the Alps. Of course it was wartime use which made a name for the bird. The pages of history are filled with references to pigeon heroes who were able, despite overwhelming odds, to deliver important military messages, often flying at speeds averaging 45 miles an hour and more.
Then in the late 1800s sportsmen in both Europe and the United States began to discover a wide realm of additional uses for this wartime hero. Pigeon competitions ranged from shooting to showing. But racing emerged as probably the most unique diversion of them all. Wendell Levi mentions a real spurt of interest in racing here in the states in 1878 when Sl00.00 was offered to the owner of the first pigeon to return from a station located 500 miles away. This was how it all began, a few competitors, a small purse. But things were destined to change. Those early contenders had little way of knowing that today pigeon racing would be heralded the world's third largest hobby.
Training a racing pigeon is time consuming and tough. It absolutely must begin at a tender age if the potential candidates are ever going to perform well in competition. Success or failure depends upon more than the bird's mind. It depends a great deal on the mind of the keeper. Homers are not taken hundreds of miles from home and dumped. They, like any athlete in training, are first given the smallest of challenges. A strong strain in optimum health is part of the requisite. A patient, methodical trainer is the rest of the formula.
Youngsters may start out with a short jaunt. (At first they may be released a mile or two from home.) This gradually becomes a greater distance until the bird has finally reached the stage for which it was best suited. Not every bird will become a long distance flyer. Some will never enter a race of more than 100 miles. Others will meet and beat the challenge of a 700 mile journey. What will be the force, the driving motivation behind their consistent homecoming? The answer is an almost unexpressible need to be with their mate, ta rest in the man-made edifice they know as home, and, of course, to satiate their need for nourishment.
From that SlOO race in 1878 to our current day, pigeon racing has snowballed. In 1910 the American Racing Pigeon Union was established for all racing enthusiasts. Beyond it sprang forth a myriad of local clubs whose purpose became promotion of the sport and education of the fancier to the intricacies of the hobby.
For those of us who for some reason or another have never owned flying pigeons, there is a tremendous curiosity left unsatisfied. We must live vicariously through those who know firsthand the thrills and challenges of their passion. It simply can't be pulled from the pages of a textbook nor discovered through casual conversation. Flyers may well be disciples in something they equate closely to a religious experience. And that, to any true bird lover, is not difficult to comprehend. For the sight of birds at flight can summon forth the latent poet in all of us. Perhaps it is because we can very nearly sense the flock's joy in their freedom. Perhaps too this is one of the worthiest reasons for people to choose racing homers.