Sherry Chandler » Rollers and Homers
Rollers and Homers
Charlie Whitt writes to say:
I caught this morning, morning’s minion, kingdom
of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn pigeon, in his riding
of the rolling level…Oops! Gerard Manly Hopkins wouldn’t like that. After all, his famous poem was about a falcon, or as they say over there, Fall-con. But, not to dis a master, it’s just my goofy way of saying that I have a new hobby. Or maybe it’s a sub-hobby.
I have always admired warm blooded creatures that freely fly. Finally, now that everyone knows I’m silly and harmless, and don’t really care, I have acquired some pigeons. I have some rollers, (the ones that do tricks as they fly), and some homers. Their trick is to always know their way back home.
I have not been able to find a formal-type name for a person who keeps pigeons. My daughter said that I was a “pigeonator”, but my son said that I seemed more like a “squabbler” to him. I’m kind of partial to “flockster” myself, or maybe something from the Greek, Pidgimus, Maximus.
The birds pictured above are all rollers, says Charlie. He adds: “I can’t wait for someone to explain diplomatically, their place on the food chain. ”
The first response that comes to mind to that question is, of course, that Hemingway is supposed to have fed his family on French pigeons snared in the park. But, also of course, the French call ‘em squab.
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4 Comments
1. Jeff Hess replies at 17th July 2006, 2:01 pm :
Shalom Sherry,
In the mid-’90s I had a managing editor whose father raised rollers. He would take them to weddings to perform as the couple exited the church.
B’shalom,
Jeff
2. Charlie replies at 17th July 2006, 9:43 pm :
Funny you should mention weddings, Jeff. My next pigeon project is to acquire some white homers to do the “white dove release thingy at weddings, etc.” The “white doves they release are really white homing pigeons and they simply fly on back home to be released again another time. Talk about recycling your product. And they are all American made. No cheap plastic pigeons here.
3. Geof Huth replies at 21st July 2006, 7:16 pm :
Sherry,
Try this (from the OED):
pigeoneer
U.S.
1. A person who trains or breeds homing pigeons, formerly esp. in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
1918 Boston Evening Rec. 11 Jan. 9/2 A pigeoneer is an expert handler of homing pigeons. 1944 M. B. COTHREN Pigeon Heroes i. 7 [The pigeon] dropped abruptly down on the landing board of its loft… In a jiffy a pigeoneer pulled out the message. 1994 G. J. HOLZMANN & B. PEHRSON Early Hist. Data Networks i. 8 In 1918, the British Air Force kept over 20,000 homing pigeons, handled by 380 pigeoneers.
2. A person employed to exterminate pigeons. rare.
[1932 A. C. BENT Life Hist. N. Amer. Gallinaceous Birds 397 A spreading network of railroads enabled the pigeoner to..send back to the markets many tons of the dead bodies of this beautiful bird.] 1944 Sunday Jrnl. & Star (Lincoln, Nebraska) 30 Apr. 8 Assistant ‘pigeoneer’ at different times is Detective Captain Eugene Masters who is also an expert shot. 2003 Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) (Nexis) 24 Mar. (Arts & Life section) C1 ‘Pigeoneers’ caught the birds in nets and used smoky fires to suffocate young birds.
Geof
4. sherry replies at 22nd July 2006, 1:55 pm :
Geof! Good to hear from you. Thanks for taking time to look out the proper term, though I guess Charlie gets to be the final arbiter. “Pigeoneer’s” a nice word, but its history takes a dark turn. Still I guess they don’t call ‘em roof rats for nothing. Or is that squirrels?
Also I keep wanting to do some silly pun, maybe talk about that famous novel “O Pigeoneers” or else the SUV called a Jeep Cherokee Pigeoneer.
Sorry, I’m rambling. I’ve had a hard week.
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