Dear readers,

         I am writing from the sunny island of Puerto Rico, in the Carribean. I have been involved with racing pigeons for some 30 odd years. It was about fifteen years ago that i got hold of that old 'best seller' The secret of eye-sign by S.W. Bishop and was indeed very impressed. 
         Flying conditions over Puerto Rico aren't exactly a breeze. We fly east bound over sea up to 300 miles. Some people lose most or all of their team by the time the third race is around.  We fly up to eight.
         We here have birds of all strains and types. I mean ALL.  After reading Bishop's book and several other articles on the subject, I decided to run my own little test on eye-sign just to say if it would hold it's  own...
         I started loft visiting around the island carefully checking all consistent  winners for their body and eye-sign appraisal. This is what ten plus years of personal research has taught me.
1-  Most birds carrying poor eye-sign would win on fast short - sprintraces up to 70 miles.
2 - Most birds with fair eye-sign would win races up to 100 miles.
3 - Most birds with good eye-sign would win races up to 200 miles.
4 - All winners over 200 miles had better than average eye-sign without exception and I mean without exception. Ten years later the random check-outs are still the same. Everytime a bird consistently flies the long one's I go over, check it out and always see a very good, much better than average eye-sign. Do I have all the answers ? Hell no !  Does it mean that eye-sign is all that makes up a bird ? I wouldn't bet on that. But I can assure anybody and all that most " long pedigreed and highly expensive birds " we've brought down here have not been able to cope with our over sea schedule. I can assure anybody that it takes a very tough bird to survive our course. Less expensive birds with crisp eye-signs are always the most promising. Oh, we've had duds, good for  nothing loaded with eye-sign birds but the truth is that I'm still to find a bird that has successfully flown and won over 200 miles and NOT be loaded with it. And that's the bottom line.  Sure, there will always be  someone to point out that nobody looks into a racehorse's or racedog's  eye. Sure : I've never seen a dog or a horse that can fly !!!

Yours in sport, Joe Vargas, Puerto Rico 
e-mail:  VARGASTon@aol.com 

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