Story 19. Homing Pigeons Deliver
Today, communicating with people is easy.
No matter where they live in the world, you can type an email and hit the send button.
But how did we send messages to people before electricity, telephones, and even regular post office mail?
There were many ways, of course, but each took a long time.
You could, for example, send your message with someone traveling by land or ship to the distant place where you needed to deliver your message.
But there were times when the message was urgent, when taking days, weeks, or even months would not do.
That is where an amazing little bird entered the picture.
The messenger pigeon is a special kind of bird with a natural ability to find its way home.
That's why it is sometimes called a homing pigeon.
Scientists have studied these unique birds for many years.
They want to understand how the birds can be taken hundreds, even thousands of miles from their homes and still find their way back when they are released.
There are many theories.
Some speculate that the birds recognize the land below them.
Others believe they know how to use the sun to guide them in the right direction.
And still others feel the birds know how to use the Earth's magnetic field as a special compass.
No matter how they did it, homing pigeons were the best and fastest way to send messages long ago.
They were used all over the world to help people send their messages out.
The way it worked was simple.
Let's say a general in a war wanted wanted to make sure that he could communicate quickly with his soldiers on the battlefield.
Pigeons raised at his location were taken by his soldiers to the battlefield.
When the soldiers had an urgent message for the general, they would write it on a thin sheet of paper and attached it to a pigeon's leg.
Then they would release the bird and it would head home where the general was.
It might seem strange to those of us who use email today, but it wasn't long ago when this little gray bird with a special talent to find its way home was the best way to send an urgent message.
