Before the invention of the electric telegraph enabled man to outrival the boast of Shakespeare’s Puck that he would “put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes,” the carrier-pigeon afforded the most rapid means of conveying intelligence between places far remote from each other. In ages the memory of which is dimly preserved in vague legends and traditions, these graceful couriers of the air were employed to carry messages of love and war. It is surmised by some writers that the “dove” let loose from the Ark, which returned at even-tide with an olive branch in its…