Nantymoel pigeon at the Wyndham pit.

Miners' Superstitions.

Welsh colliers still retain a firm belief in omens. It will be remembered that after the Llanbradach explosion one of the rescue parties found a robin in the mine, and the workers in the pit felt convinced there had been a "Jonah on board." A strange incident has occurred this week at Nantymoel. A resident of that little mid-Glamorgan mining town was the possessor of a valuable pigeon, which he "freed" for the first time on Sunday. It did not return. On Monday morning, when the colliers employed at the Wyndham mine approached the shaft, they saw the bird perched upon the framework. A considerable section declined to descend the pit, until the bird was removed, convinced that the pigeon was a bird of ill-omen.

Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 4th October 1901.