THE UNCHARTED SKY 149 



migrating by way of the British Isles and 

 France. ' ' 



"Birds must learn their way,'' said the pot- 

 hunter, "like bees do, by seein' the country. Take 

 homin' pigeons, they won't come back if they ain't 

 trained. ' ' 



"That idea would be all right in some cases," 

 agreed the expert, "but it doesn't stand investiga- 

 tion. First of all — there isn't much evidence to 

 show that when a bird or animal learns something, 

 that something is handed on to its young. Your 

 father knew how to shoot and to read, but you had 

 to be taught. Man, as a race, has been talking for 

 tens of thousands of years, but every baby has to 

 learn how to speak. 



"Another objection to the idea that birds re- 

 member their migration routes is, as I said before, 

 that birds right out of the nest will migrate with- 

 out leaders. 



"A third is that no amount of teaching could 

 help a bird in long flights over the sea. What 

 sign-post can the Golden Plover of the Pacific re- 

 member in its two-thousand-mile flight from the 

 Aleutian Islands to Hawaii ? 



"Then, you've got to remember, a large number 

 of migrating birds fly by night, in fact, nearly all 



