The Pigeons, Alas

Homing pigeons are in serious trouble. Many fanciers fear that some mysterious influence is confusing or destroying their famous homing instinct. Last week the Homing Pigeon Club of Tucson, Ariz, released 109 well-trained birds at Lordsburg, N. Mex. Club members expected at least 95 of them to find their way back the 135 miles to home lofts in Tucson, but only five birds made it. No one knows what happened to the other 104. Said Member Tracy Prater, onetime Army pigeoneer: "Every club has a 'smash' race once in a while, but that is nothing to explain our troubles in the last two weeks."

All Birds Missing. One pigeon club in nearby Phoenix has stopped all racing because of heavy losses. In one 56-bird race, it lost all the birds. Another Phoenix club still races, but its losses are increasing distressingly. Some Arizona pigeon fanciers attribute their misfortunes to secret activities at White Sands (missile) Proving Ground, N. Mex.

From other parts of the U.S. came other wails. Since last August, race after race has been a "smash," with nearly all birds lost. One New York City club lost all except nine of 230 birds. Another sent out some 1,000 birds and got less than 100 back. Clubs in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and Colorado were reported as having the same experience. A New Jersey club retrieved only two birds out of a flight of 100. There are some trouble-free spots (e.g., Massachusetts), but Editor John A. Roberts of the Racing Pigeon Bulletin says that pigeons are in trouble in most of the world. English fanciers recently lost all but 100 of a 7,000-to-8,000 bird flight from the Channel Islands.

What has happened? Pigeon fanciers wish they knew. Ever since World War II, especially in Europe, there have been spectacular "smashes," but never have the disasters been so numerous and so wide spread. The International Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers (2,800 members) held a convention last week in Newark and discussed the problem dispiritedly. Its president, John Inglis Jr., has lost 32 birds since August and has only ten left. He has no theory to account for the losses.

Fall-Out or Saucers? A few pigeon fanciers blame an unusual combination of the pigeons' normal enemies: hawks, hunters, high-tension wires, TV aerials, adverse weather. Others are not so complacent, pointing out that these familiar dangers would not be likely to increase in New Jersey, Arizona and England at the same time.

Some fanciers have appealed to pigeon-wise scientists, but have got little help. Science does not really understand the mysterious instincts or special senses that guide pigeons home. Other desperate pigeonmen blame radar, TV broadcasting and radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons tests. Some think that secret Government experiments are "disrupting air waves and currents so the pigeons can't find their way home."

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