Other editions of book Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon

Take flight with Gay-Neck, the passenger pigeon with a shimmery throat, his kind young master and Ghond, the wildlife expert, on their adventures in a village, across the Himalayas and to a battlefield in France. In this heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking tale, soar through Gay-Neck?s encounters with hawks and eagles, his quests with the swifts and a monk, and finally his heroic service as a bearer of messages filled with love and courage during the First World War. A prequel to Gay-Neck?s internationally renowned story, Ghond the Hunter focuses on the first fifteen years in the life of Gay-Neck?s trainer, Ghond. The young boy?s initiation into forest life, his understanding of dangerous animals, his run-ins with eagles, snakes and tigers, and his experiences with his pet panther make for this riveting tale of a master hunter. This special edition brings together two classic stories ? Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon and Ghond the Hunter ? by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, the only Indian to have won the John Newbery Medal. Describing animal life with nail-biting realism, Dhan Gopal Mukerji?s stories take you to a place where the feral meets the tame, man meets nature, and all that matters is the law of the jungle!

Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon is a 1928 children's novel by Dhan Gopal Mukerji that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1928. Gay-Neck, or ‘’Chitra-Griva’’, is born to a young owner in India. Gay-Neck’s parents teach him how to fly, but he soon loses his father in a storm and his mother to a hawk. His master and Ghond the hunter take him out into the wilderness, but he becomes so scared by the hawks that he flees and ends up in a lamasery where the Buddhist monks are able to cure him of his fear. When his young master returns home he finds Gay-neck waiting for him. But Gay-Neck decides to go on other long journeys, much to the boy’s consternation. Then, during World War I, Gay-Neck and Ghond end up journeying to Europe where Gay-Neck serves as a messenger pigeon. He is chased by German machine-eagles (planes) and is severely traumatized when one of his fellow messenger pigeons is shot down. Gay-neck and Ghond barely survive, and Gay-Neck is unable to fly. Ghond, Gay-Neck, and his master return to the lamasery near Singalila, where Ghond and Gay-Neck need to be cleansed of the hate and fear of the war. After that, Ghond succeeds in hunting down a buffalo that killed a villager, but feels remorse for having to kill the buffalo. Gay-Neck disappears once more, but when the other two return home, they find, to their joy, that Gay-Neck had already flown there ahead of them. -- Wikipedia