CHAPTER V 



ORIENTATION AND ROUTE FINDING 



THE question, How do birds find their way ? is 

 answered by many ingenious and often purely specu- 

 lative theories, some of which have been already 

 referred to in connection with the points discussed. 



Each theory, though it may apparently explain 

 certain phases of migration, can be answered by 

 some exceptional difficulty which makes it fail as 

 a full explanation ; we are driven to the conclusion 

 that birds possess a sense of direction, which is 

 often, very incorrectly, called Orientation. Bio- 

 logically this term does not imply any connection 

 with the East, but is simply used to describe the 

 power of finding the way back to a certain base, or 

 of returning home. It is a power or sense which 

 undoubtedly exists in many vertebrate animals 

 and in some invertebrates, though it is hard, in 

 many cases, to separate or distinguish it from 

 memory and impression gained through eyesight. 

 Mr John Burroughs, one of the strongest opponents 

 of what he calls the " Sentimental School of Nature 

 Study/' gives in his " Ways of Nature " a striking 

 instance of this faculty which may serve as an 



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