離開
進入《中英對照讀新聞》Boomerang the racing pigeon returns to the owner who gave her away TEN years ago 賽鴿「回力標」送人10年後重回飼主懷抱
◎鄭寺音
She is no spring chicken, and appears to have spent a few years roosting rough.
她不再年輕，而且看來似乎過了好幾年苦日子。
But Boomerang the pigeon has lost neither her homing instinct - nor her sense of occasion.
但「回力標」這隻賽鴿沒失去歸巢的本能，也沒忘記她對重大日子的感覺。
After ten years away, she suddenly turned up at the home of the man who raised her. And on Father’s Day.
離開10年後，她突然出現在曾飼養過她的男子家中。而且是在父親節這一天。
At first, Dino Reardon thought the bedraggled bird running towards him at his home in Skipton, North Yorkshire, was a stray.
一開始，李爾頓以為這隻朝他在北約克夏史基普頓家中飛來、髒兮兮的小鳥迷了路。
’I checked the tag and nearly collapsed when I saw who it was,’ he said. ’I just couldn’t believe it. She could barely stand up and couldn’t even make it into the aviary, she was just exhausted.
他說：「我檢查牌子，看到牠是誰時，差點昏倒。」「我真是不敢相信，她站都站不穩，甚至沒辦法進到鳥籠裡，她真是累壞了。」
’I spent all Sunday feeding her glucose and honey to try and get her energy back from the journey.’
「我整個星期天都在餵她葡萄糖跟蜂蜜，試著讓她恢復這一趟消失的元氣。」
Her return was not completely unexpected, however - as her name suggests. Boomerang’s homing instinct is the stuff of legend among pigeon fanciers.
但她的回來並非完全出乎意料，就如同她名字暗示的一樣。回力標歸巢的本能，在養鴿人之間傳聞已久。
The 13-year-old bird first made headlines back in 1998, when Mr Reardon gave her to a friend in Algeciras, southern Spain, after retiring from breeding racing pigeons. Boomerang promptly flew the 1,200 miles back home.
這隻13歲的鳥首度登上頭版，要回溯到1998年，李爾頓退休不再飼養賽鴿後，把她送給西班牙南部阿爾赫西拉斯的一個朋友。回力標當時馬上飛了1200英里回家。
新聞辭典
give away：贈送、分發。例句：She gave away all her money to the poor.（她把錢都送給窮人了。）
be no spring chicken：俚語，不再年輕。 spring chicken指的是年輕人，少女。I’m no spring chicken.（我不年輕了。）
homing instinct ：（動物）歸巢的本能。例句：Migrating birds and fish have a strong homing instinct.（候鳥與魚有很強的歸巢本能。）
