THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 71 



a line l)luisli cast on the nuiip ; and a narrow half- 

 collar of white across the' supper part of the neck. 

 They are about lifteen inches long. 



All pigeons have a wonderful power of hnding their 

 homes, even if taken to great distance from them. 

 Their mode of hnding their domiciles has been a sub- 

 ject of animated discussions, "since the memory of 

 man runneth not contrary thereto." One party argu- 

 ing that it is an instinctive operation ; another that it 

 is entirely by sight; and a third, that it is by a com- 

 bmation of the two, with a very sensitive recognition 

 or the waves of electricity through the atmosphere, 

 that each bird uses in a peculiar way, indicating to the 

 bird its direction from home, and the way to travel, 

 until sight avails to fix the route. To an observer of 

 a flock of young passenger pigeons, a few days after 

 the old birds had all departed to new nestings on 

 Sydenham lakes, in Ontario, it was mighty interest- 

 ing to find the young birds at Watertown, New York, 

 the next day ; then near Bay of Quinte the second day, 

 and all of them in the woods of Sydenham valley the 

 third day. Telepathy or intuition is certairily sug- 

 gested. 



