Homing pigeon

A pigeon trained to return home from a distance. Homing pigeons are used for sending back messages or for flying races. By carrying the birds away and releasing them at gradually increasing distances from home, they may be trained to return with more or less certainty and promptness from distances up to four or five hundred miles. If the distance is increased much beyond this, the birds are unable to cover it without stopping for a prolonged rest, and their return becomes doubtful. Homing pigeons are not bred for fancy points or special colors, but for strength, speed, endurance, and intelligence or homing instinct.

© Webster 1913.