Canister Color Code
Pigeons were used by a variety of services and the canisters affixed to their legs were colour-coded to distinguish recipients.
- Red = US Forces + British Army
- Blue = US Forces + British RAF
- Blue with coloured disk = British RAF
- Blue with white patch = RAF
- Red with coloured disk = British Special Service
- Grey = British Special Service
- Green = British Special Service
- Black = British Civil Police
- Yellow = British Commercial
Read more about this topic: National Pigeon Service
Famous quotes containing the words color and/or code:
“Rain falls into the open eyes of the dead
Again again with its pointless sound
When the moon finds them they are the color of everything”
—William Stanley Merwin (b. 1927)
“Wise Draco comes, deep in the midnight roll
Of black artillery; he comes, though late;
In code corroborating Calvin’s creed
And cynic tyrannies of honest kings;
He comes, nor parlies; and the Town, redeemed,
Gives thanks devout; nor, being thankful, heeds
The grimy slur on the Republic’s faith implied,
Which holds that Man is naturally good,
And—more—is Nature’s Roman, never to be
scourged.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)