In China, accounts of the cultivation of pigeons as prized possessions date from the Southern Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279) at which time pigeon breeding and flying was a fashionable hobby among wealthy young men. Pigeons were known as ch'a yü chia jen (winged maidens). The cult of pigeon raising endured, transcending social class and centering in urban areas.

The introduction of pigeon flutes appears to date from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the seventeenth century. Records from this period specify particularly talented flute and whistle makers. The origin of the practice, however, is not known.

It has been suggested that birds with whistles were used to keep flocks together and deter predator hawks. Another theory connects them to the Chinese "whistling arrows" used to signal the movement of troops during warfare.

The whistles and flutes are very light, each weighing only a few grams. They were fashioned from gourds and bamboo. They were attached to the tails of young pigeons by means of fine copper wire. When the birds fly, wind flows through the apertures which are tuned to different pitches creating a musical effect something like "flying pipe organs".

The whistles and flutes exhibited here were collected by James Howe in China in the 1930s. After he passed away in 1970, Howe donated them to the Lowie (now Phoebe Hearst) Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, which has loaned the flutes to Howe Homestead Park.