courier-pigeon, a sort of pigeon used, when properly trained, to be sent with letters from one place to another. See Columba.

Though you carry these birds hood-winked, 20, 30, nay, 60 or 100 miles, they will find their way in a very little time to the place where they were bred. They are trained to this service in Turkey and Persia; and are carried first, while young, short flights of half a mile, afterwards more, till at length they will return from the farthest part of the kingdom. Every bailaw has a basket of these pigeons bred in the seraglio, which, upon any emergent occasion, as an insurrection, or the like, he dispatches, with letters braced under their wings, to the seraglio; which proves a more speedy method, as well as a more safe one, than any other; he sends out more than one pigeon, however, for fear of accidents. Lithgow affirms us, that one of these birds will carry a letter from Babylon to Aleppo, which is 30 days journey, in 48 hours. This is also a very ancient practice; Hirtius and Brutus, at the siege of Modena, held a correspondence with one another by means of pigeons. And Ovid tells us, that Taurophenes, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave notice to his father of his victory at the Olympic Games, sending it to him at Ægina.

In modern times, the most noted were the pigeons of Aleppo, Aleppo, which served as couriers at Alexandretta and Bagdad. But this use of them has been laid aside for the last 30 or 40 years, because the Kurd robbers killed the pigeons. The manner of sending advice by them was this: they took pairs which had young ones, and carried them on horseback to the place from whence they wished them to return, taking care to let them have a full view. When the news arrived, the correspondent tied a billet to the pigeon's foot, and let her loose. The bird, impatient to see its young, flew off like lightning, and arrived at Aleppo in ten hours from Alexandretta, and in two days from Bagdad. It was not difficult for them to find their way back, since Aleppo may be discovered at an immense distance. This pigeon has nothing peculiar in its form, except its nostrils, which, instead of being smooth and even, are swollen and rough.