OCCULT SENSES IN BIRDS 



CHAPTER VII 



]\1\n's Five Senses. Probabilities of Additional Senses 

 IN Birds. Failure of the Known Senses to Account 

 FOR Actions of Birds and Insects. A Way-finding Sense. 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Views on Occult Senses in Birds. 

 Flocks of Birds Moving in Unison. 



Man is in possession of five senses on which he 

 rehes for his impressions of external affairs. 

 Why five ? an arbitrary number surely ! May 

 there not be other instruments capable of re- 

 cording vibrations which man has either lost or 

 has never possessed ? We know already 

 that our own familiar senses are limited : that 

 notes and colours actually exist that our own 

 ears and eyes are not sensitive enough to take 

 cognizance of. Is it then unreasonable to suggest 

 that birds, beasts and insects may own additional 

 faculties, and by bringing them into play, may 

 be able to perform feats that seem altogether 

 unaccountable to us ? If we examine our own 

 senses we find that one may corroborate another 

 in some particular. A blind man may know 

 that an object is round, and sight would confirm this 

 impression. But othei senses stand entirely 

 alone. No inkling ot sound can reach us through 

 the channel of the eye. The most exquisite 

 touch fails to reveal the fragrance of the rose. 

 Imagine then a sixth sense — any number of 

 additional senses — why chain ourselves down to 

 the purely arbitrary five ! We cannot. To 



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