Although Australia is a metric country, it seems that there is a firm exception to the rule. Pigeon racing in that country seems to have been totally bypassed by metrication; an Imperial island in a metric ocean. They seem convinced that flying distances should only be measured in miles. In all other metric countries this sport is metric. It is not metric in Britain, Ireland and the USA (miles and flying speed in decimal yards per minute). Speed is measured in m/min in metric countries, and distance of course in kilometers.
See this gem from the PDF attachment: "Taking the bird 160 miles (as the bird flies) involved a round trip of almost 800 klms (SIC) and a long day of driving with many delays at road works along the Pacific highway." Or this one: "I have never been able to understand and never will be able to understand why most flyers start their birds a few klms (SIC) down the road and slowly progress a few klms (SIC) at a time until a limit of thirty & forty miles has been reached prior to the first race." Maybe they live in a time warp that situates them about 30 years ago. And "800" and a "few" *klms* after 30 years of exposure to the correct symbol km!! I wonder, when will Australian pigeon racing go metric? I have had pigeons myself. Most were very tame, cheeky and naughty, a bit like Hitchcocks' birds. A black cock was a real hooligan, always spoiling for a fight against my hand. He would come down, cooing and blowing up his neck as if saying: "Come on you, I want to fight you!" He had inherited this fighting spirit from his mother. When she was hatching eggs and I held a hand in her cot, she would coo first, then she came off the nest and attacked me! Imagine a little bird, weighing in at about 400 g, doing such a thing! I will never forget this lovely little black scoundrel and his plucky mother. My relationship with these birds was the same that people have with their dogs. The PDF-article is in full in the virus checked attachment: all distances in miles except for the citations above. Han Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Roger Brown.pdf
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