OCCULT SENSES IN BIRDS 



hatched in a chip box in some entomologist's 

 chamber in the heart of a manufacturing town. 

 Nothing that we know of scent wih account for 

 this. In this case some Hght is thrown on the 

 question by the fact that numbers of butterflies 

 have been known to assemble around ships on 

 the coast where low power wireless messages 

 were being dispatched, at once dispersing on their 

 cessation. Thus it may possibly be inferred 

 that they are able to pick up certain vibrations. 

 Again, when some stricken beast falls in the 

 desert, vultures will appear as tiny specks in the 

 sky, and bear down upon their prey. Innumer- 

 able instances of this kind could be quoted, but 

 one may suffice. The body of a dog was hidden 

 in a cave and quite invisible from above, yet it 

 was speedily found by a pair of buzzards although 

 none of the birds existed in the neighbourhood 

 for many miles. 



In the case of migration all the known senses 

 fail to explain the strange way-finding power 

 shown by birds. All the familiar explanations — 

 parental guidance, powers of ^^ision that enable 

 landmarks to be seen at incredible distances, 

 favouring winds and so on — break down in face 

 of the facts. Young birds are known to migrate 

 before their parents, and penguins travel to a 

 definite destination for hundreds of miles under 

 water. 



It is a sign of the times that many naturalists 

 are now abandoning the hard and fast five senses 

 theory in regard to the less obvious movements 

 of what are known as the lower orders of Nature. 

 Writing in the " Ibis " on " The Sense of Smell 

 in Birds " Mr. J. H. Gurney points out that this, 

 even when it exists, cannot be held to explain 

 the manner in which birds find hidden food. He 

 writes : — ' ' There is a novel theory which has 

 been propounded more than once and which, I 



8i 



