Carrier pigeon

A pigeon bred or trained to carry messages between places, usually by returning to its home loft. Its homing ability makes it useful for one-way message delivery.

Homing pigeon: A pigeon that can navigate back to its home loft from unfamiliar locations. Carrier pigeons rely on this homing behavior to return with messages.
Rock dove: The wild pigeon species from which domestic pigeons descend. Its descendants supplied the birds bred for homing and message carrying.
Pigeon post in India: An Indian police communication service that used trained pigeons to connect remote locations. It demonstrates sustained public-service use of pigeons in places with limited communications.
Semaphore line: A chain of towers that relayed messages using movable arms visible from one tower to the next. Unlike pigeons, semaphore depended on fixed routes and clear visibility.
Pigeon navigation: The sensory and cognitive processes pigeons use to determine direction and navigate toward a destination. Its cues guide a carrier pigeon home across unfamiliar terrain.
Pigeon domestication: The long process by which humans bred and kept pigeons for food, communication, and other uses. Selective breeding made some domestic pigeons especially effective at returning home.
Reuters: An international news agency founded in 1851 by Paul Julius Reuter. Reuter used carrier pigeons to transmit financial news between cities before telegraph links were complete.
Electric telegraph: A system that transmits coded messages over wires using electrical signals. The telegraph sent messages both ways without relying on a bird's return journey.
Magnetoreception: The ability of an organism to detect information from Earth's magnetic field. Magnetic cues may contribute to pigeons' orientation, alongside other navigational cues.
Ancient Egypt: A civilization of northeastern Africa that flourished along the Nile for thousands of years. Pigeons were used to communicate news in ancient Egyptian society.

Linked from 5 pages