70 THE MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS 



the beach at La Paloma in eastern Uruguay. The 

 regress of these wandering individuals to their 

 proper breeding ground can hardly be attributed to 

 any use of landmarks, since they swim at sea. Yet 

 they return regularly to their homes. At the Falk- 

 land Islands penguins, though present throughout 

 the year, come in abundance for the breeding season. 

 The return of these voyagers seems wholly mysteri- 

 ous unless we assume that they have some instinct of 

 direction to guide them. 



As further instances of the homing habit we may 

 cite the case of the frigate-bird, which in the Tua- 

 motu, Gilbert, and Marshall Islands, and probably 

 elsewhere in the tropical Pacific, has been utilized by 

 natives as a carrier of messages between islands far 

 distant from one another as regularly as pigeons were 

 utilized for a similar purpose in the Middle Ages, in 

 Persia, Serbia, and Egypt. In fact, the frigate-bird 

 may be termed the carrier pigeon of the Pacific. The 

 great birds are reared from the nest, tamed, and 

 accustomed to certain perches. Carried to other 

 islands, they are released with messages which in a 

 few hours they carry to their proper home. Mr. 

 W. G. Anderson of Honolulu, tells me that formerly 

 he tamed frigate-birds on Fanning Island near the 

 Equator, and that when he crossed to Washington 

 Island, eighty miles distant, he regularly took one of 

 these birds and released it on his arrival with a mes- 



