Denise Wondolowska, ape 16, of East St. Louis, Illinois, for her question:
Where did carrier pigeons originate?
Most of us tend to think of the carrier pigeon and the homing pigeon as one and the same. Pigeon fanciers, who show and race these amazing birds, think of them as two varieties or breeds of the same species. Members of the same species may vary, but they can mate and bear offspring. When carriers, homers and other domestic pigeons cross breed, the offspring revert to their common wild ancestor, the blue rock dove that originated in the Old World.
Wild rock doves still live near the Mediterranean, on the rocky slopes and cliffs of Africa, Europe and Asia. Some of their ancestors were among the first domesticated birds, though it is hard to say whether the people adopted these pigeons or the pigeons adopted the people. The original wild species looks a lot like our chummy street pigeon. But ages ago, mankind began selecting, and breeding certain birds to enhance special qualities. This selective breeding resulted in the carrier, the homer, the pouter and almost 200 other breeds, strains or varieties of the original species.
No doubt the friendly association of people and pigeons began near the original habitat of the wild rock dove. In Egypt, a strain of homers was trained to carry messages at least 5,000 years ago. His descendants carried news of the ancient Greek Olympic Games from city to city. Later they were drafted to serve as military couriers for the wayfaring Persians and Romans. The heroic homer breed continued in this role all the way up into this century until replaced by modern communications systems.
For thousands of years, the most talented homers were bred to produce even more talented offspring. However, most flying birds are great travelers with a mysterious inborn ability to navigate there and back. The wild rock dove can find this way home from far places, and all members of his species have this quality to some extent. The British counted on this fact when they developed another strain of courier pigeon.
All strains of the basic species share the basic rock dove features. But no two birds are exactly alike. The new strain was bred by selecting especially talented birds from ordinary domestic pigeons. Their offspring inherited more and still more of the homing gift and became the special breed called the carrier pigeon. As long distance navigators, they can compete with the homers, whose pedigree goes back to antiquity.
Both the homer and carrier are large pigeons that stand proudly erect. The homer favors street pigeon colors. The carrier is a black or grey brown bird, with bare skin around his bright eyes and piled loosely on his beak. Though both breeds are retired from military service, pigeon fanciers still cherish them as show birds. And pigeon racing contests are becoming a very popular hobby sport in all the civilized countries of the world.