On November 11, 1935, a blue peacock decided to make his escape from who knows where and lead numerous grown men on a four-hour chase through the streets of New York. It’s a plane! It’s a bird! It’s a peacock! Imagine walking down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on a Monday morning and seeing a peacock […]
Archive for the ‘Birds and Pigeons’ Category
1935: The Peacock That Caused a Standoff at the Plaza Hotel
Posted: 19th April 2014 by The Hatching Cat in Birds and PigeonsTags: Central Park, Chickering Hall, Coterie Club, New York History, Peacock, Plaza Funeral Home, Plaza Hotel, West 47th Street Police Station
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1912: When New York’s First Public Christmas Tree Was Delivered by Horses
Posted: 6th December 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Birds and Pigeons, Horse TalesTags: Christmas tree, Emilie D. Lee Herreshoff, Gwent Male Glee Singers, Madison Square Park, New York History, Tree of Light
I previously wrote about four reindeer on display at the iconic Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, which made its debut in 1931. Although the Rockefeller Center tree in New York always gets all of the media’s attention, the “Tree of Light” at Madison Square Park was in fact America’s first community Christmas tree. This tree […]
1930: The Carrier Pigeons That Led the NYPD Air Services on a Wild Goose Chase
Posted: 1st November 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Birds and PigeonsTags: carrier pigeons, Glenn H. Curtiss, New York History, NYPD Air Services, NYPD Aviation, Otto Kafka, Queens, Rodman Wanamaker, Savoia-Marchetti S-56
Long before there was Morse code, wireless telegraphy, radio, TV, e-mail, wifi, and smart phones, there were homing pigeons, aka carrier pigeons or messenger pigeons. Carrier pigeons have been prized for their navigational abilities for thousands of years. Using “mental maps” and their remarkable abilities to find their way home, these carrier pigeons have been […]
