The decoy pipe at Delta. Recaptures of ducks banded here show how some individuals 



return each year to the decoy pond, a familiar stopping place on their 



path of migration, a place that must be held in memory 



from one season to the next. 



bitter day in late autumn it returned to the dooryard of its early days. For 

 these birds, the artificial environments of their first homes had been im- 

 pressed on their beings; their memories kept the traces of their natal ranges. 

 Despite the call of wilder places, they were faithful to the special locality 

 of earliest experience. 



Many pages could be given to a recitation of the tie between the baby 

 bird and its natal environment. The home, whether in the wild marsh or 

 within the domestic realm of a farmyard or research station, is learned dur- 

 ing the early hours of life. This tie to the home must be nearly as strong as 

 the bond to the parent. I suspect that the imprinting which Lorenz saw so 

 clearly in the relationship between the baby bird and its parent must be a 

 process similar to that of the retention we have been discussing. Visual 

 experiences with parent and environment are impressed upon the being of 

 the young bird; thus begins a retentiveness upon which the continuity of 

 life depends. Since responses between companions ( as between mother and 



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