Exerts from the book  ( The Pigeon) copywrite 1944 comments by R.W. Donady, Long Island City N.Y.

ORIGIN- The Domestic show, and New York Flying Flight are true American creations. Principally and almost exclusively bred in the city of New York for many years, its bloodlines can be traced as far back as1881. Little was known about this breed in other sections of the United States at the time. It is believed that this breed was originally created from a cross of the Magpie and a breed known as the Long faced Hollander. This latter breed seems to have been the Hamberg medium-faced, white-tailed Tumbler which has a very clear beak and white iris. Subsequently, R.W. Donady states, the German Hanover white-eyed Tumbler was out-crossed upon.

Important Improvements and advances in the breed started about 1909. In that year the American Highflyers, a club sponsoring the Domestic Flight, was organized. In 1912 some breeders tried an outcross on the Martham. This cross proved very unsatisfactory because the Martham had just been produced and its blood lines were not fixed. In that same year the Brooklyn Pigeon Club was organized. In 1915 the Bronx Show Flight Association and Astoria Flight Club were founded. All of these clubs sponsored and specialized in the American Domestic Flight.

In the early Days of the American Flight, the birds were flown in bundles over the city and flyers vied with one another in capturing each others birds. The underlying principle was the same as that of the Triganieri in Modena, (to fly the swarming flocks into each other in hope that confused rival birds would trap with the flyers birds upon returning to the loft). Unlike Modena, in New York the birds were sold back to their original owners instead of being killed. Gradually there was a transition from breeding for flying quality to exhibition qualities. In 1928, under the leadership of Donady, the Domestic Flight was bred for show purposes alone and no longer flown. In 1936, ten clubs were combined into the Metropolitan Pigeon Association, which issued over twelve thousand bands during the first half of 1937. This master club was said to represent between fifteen and twenty thousand birds... largely Flight's.

Frank Hahn (N.Y.)  1915 was one of the first outstanding breeders of the American Domestic Flight. Among the other leading American breeders were C.P. Durler (N.Y.), Charles Pilnachek (N.Y.) and R.W. Donady (N.Y.)
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