Extraordinary Pigeons

Extraordinary Pigeons PDF

Author: Stephen Green-Armytage

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Published: 2003-10-07

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780810946309

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The author and photographer who opened a window into the world of exotic birds with his successful "Extraordinary Chickens" and its well-received follow-up, "Extraordinary Pheasants," continues his startling exploration with another singular and charming book.

Homing

Homing PDF

Author: Jon Day

Publisher: John Murray

Published: 2019-06-13

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 147363539X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 'Rich and joyous ...The book's quiet optimism about our ability to change, and to learn to love small things passionately, will stay with me for a long time' Helen Macdonald 'Big-hearted and quietly gripping' Guardian 'I love Jon Day's writing and his birds. A marvellous, soaring account' Olivia Laing '[A] beautiful book about unbeautiful birds' Observer 'This is nature writing at its best' Financial Times 'Awash with historical and literary detail, and moving moments ... Wonderful' Telegraph 'Every page of this beautifully written book brought me pleasure' Charlotte Higgins 'A vivid evocation of a remarkable species and a rich working-class tradition. It's also a charming defence of a much-maligned bird, which will make any reader look at our cooing, waddling, junk-food-loving feathered friends very differently in future' Daily Mail 'Endlessly interesting and dazzlingly erudite, this wonderful book will make a home for itself in your heart' Prospect As a boy, Jon Day was fascinated by pigeons, which he used to rescue from the streets of London. Twenty years later he moved away from the city centre to the suburbs to start a family. But in moving house, he began to lose a sense of what it meant to feel at home. Returning to his childhood obsession with the birds, he built a coop in his garden and joined a local pigeon racing club. Over the next few years, as he made a home with his young family in Leyton, he learned to train and race his pigeons, hoping that they might teach him to feel homed. Having lived closely with humans for tens of thousands of years, pigeons have become powerful symbols of peace and domesticity. But they are also much-maligned, and nowadays most people think of these birds, if they do so at all, as vermin. A book about the overlooked beauty of this species, and about what it means to dwell, Homing delves into the curious world of pigeon fancying, explores the scientific mysteries of animal homing, and traces the cultural, political and philosophical meanings of home. It is a book about the making of home and making for home: a book about why we return.

Pigeons on the Grass

Pigeons on the Grass PDF

Author: Wolfgang Koeppen

Publisher: New Directions Publishing

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 081122919X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Wolfgang Koeppen’s postwar masterpiece in a luminous new translation by the poet Michael Hofmann Pigeons on the Grass is told over a single day in Munich in 1948. The first new cinemas and insurance offices are opening atop the ruins, Korea and Persia are keeping the world in panic, planes rumble in the sky (but no one looks up), newspaper headlines announce war over oil and atomic bomb tests. Odysseus Cotton, a black man, alights at the station and hires a porter; Frau Behrend disowns her daughter; with their interracial love affair, Carla Behrend and Washington Price scandalize their neighbors—who still expect gifts of chocolate and coffee; a boy hustles to sell a stray dog; Mr. Edwin, a visiting poet, prepares for a reading; Philipp gives himself up to despair; Emilia sells the last of her jewelry; Alexander stars as the Archduke in a new German Super-production; and Susanne seeks out a night to remember. In Michael Hofmann’s words, “in their sum, they are the totality of existence.” Koeppen spares no one and sees all in this penetrating and intense novel that surveys those who remain, and those who have just arrived, in a damaged society. As inventive as Joyce and as compulsively readable as Dickens, Pigeons on the Grass is a great lost classic.

War Pigeons

War Pigeons PDF

Author: Elizabeth G. Macalaster

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2020-10-08

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1476680809

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

For more than seven decades, homing pigeons provided the U.S. military with its fastest most reliable means of communication. Originally bred for racing in the early 1800s, homing pigeons were later trained by pigeoneers to fly up to 60 mph for hundreds of miles, and served the United States for almost 75 years, through four wars on four continents. Barely weighing a pound, these extraordinary birds carried messages in and out of gas, smoke, exploding bombs and gunfire. They flew through jungles, deserts and mountains, not faltering even when faced with large expanses of ocean to cross. Sometimes they arrived nearly dead from wounds or exhaustion, refusing to give up until they reached their objective. This book is the first complete account of the remarkable service that homing pigeons provided for the American armed forces, from its fledgling beginnings after the Civil War to the birds' invaluable role in communications in every branch of the U.S. military through both World Wars and beyond. Personal narratives, primary sources and news articles tell the story of the pigeons' recruitment and training in the U.S., their deployment abroad and use on the home front.

How to Raise Poultry

How to Raise Poultry PDF

Author: Christine Heinrichs

Publisher: Voyageur Press

Published: 2009-04-15

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1616732121

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Prized for their feathers or eggs, raised for their meat or their beauty or simply for fun, poultry of a dazzling array of sorts and sizes have a place in the heart of farmers, ranchers, and bird fanciers alike. If you want to raise fowl—of whatever kind and for whatever reason—this book is the perfect place to begin. Poultry expert Christine Heinrichs lays out the distinctions between waterfowl (ducks, geese, and swans), turkeys, gamebirds (peafowl, pheasants, quail, and others), ratites (ostriches, emus, and rheas), and pigeons. She then clearly details the very different requirements for raising each species, from feeding and housing to husbandry and health, to showing and marketing and legal concerns. Whether you’re thinking of starting a flock or acquiring a few feathered friends, this handy guide tells you everything you need to know to raise healthy poultry for pleasure or profit—or both. Breed Guide & Selection Proper Care & Healthy Feeding Building Facilities & Fencing

Pigeon

Pigeon PDF

Author: Barbara Allen

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2009-10-15

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1861897111

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Our frequent urban companion, cooing in the eaves of train stations or scavenging underfoot for breadcrumbs and discarded French fries, the pigeon has many detractors—and even some fans. Written out of love for and fascination with this humble yet important bird, Barbara Allen’s Pigeon explores its cultural significance, as well as its similarities to and differences from its close counterpart, the dove. While the dove is seen as a symbol of love, peace, and goodwill, the pigeon is commonly perceived as a filthy, ill-mannered flying rodent, a “rat with wings.” Readers will find in Pigeon an enticing exploration of the historical and contemporary bonds between humans and these two unique and closely related birds. For polluting statues and architecture, the pigeon has earned a bad reputation, but Barbara Allen offers several examples of the bird’s importance—as a source of food and fertilizer, a bearer of messages during times of war, a pollution monitor, and an aid to Charles Darwin in his pivotal research on evolutionary theory. Allen also comments on the literary love and celebration of pigeons and doves in the work of such writers and poets as Shakespeare, Dickens, Beatrix Potter, Proust, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Along the way, Allen corrects the many stereotypes about pigeons in the hope that the rich history of one of the oldest human-animal partnerships will be both admired and celebrated.