80 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



her,"^' which are very much in point. Sir Walter Buller stated 

 that, speaking generally, each of these islands, or groups of 

 islands, has its own albatros, its own penguin, its own cor- 

 morant, and its own set of small petrels. These islands, or 

 groups of islands, a.re, however, merely the nurseries for the 

 albatroses and penguins, which spend about ten months of 

 the year roaming about the ocean, but unerringly find their 

 way back, year after year, to their old breeding-places, 

 although those islands are but specks in the wide waste of 

 waters. It may be urged of the albatros that it can mount 

 in the air and take its bearings when looking for its island 

 asylum ; but this is beyond the penguin's powers to do. 

 Owing to its conditions of existence, it is unable to leave the 

 water, and, swimming on the surface, can, at the best, see 

 only a few yards ahead. And yet, with unerring precision, 

 each species of penguin flies straight back to its particular 

 island sanctuary, and to its own community. There is no 

 human faculty corresponding with the faculty whereby the 

 penguin accomplishes so remarkable a feat. The old Maori 

 navigators who found their way from Hawaiki to New Zealand 

 without the aid of chart or compass, like the early navigators 

 of other countries, followed the guidance afforded them by the 

 sun and the stars ; but we cannot imagine the penguin to 

 possess even an elementary knowledge of astronomy. Indeed, 

 it is not certain that it can even see the sun and the stars. 

 Still, mysterious as the sense of direction is, we can comprehend 

 its nature ; but animals possess other mental powers which 

 are less within our ken. 



Experiments made by Lubbock show that good reason 

 exists for believing that ants and daphnias are sensible to the 

 ultra-violet rays of the spectrum, or the actinic rays, as they 

 are sometimes called, to which human beings are insensitive. 

 Earthworms, newts, and other low forms of auimal life display 

 a similar susceptibility to these rays. Whether this sensitive- 

 ness is an extension of the visual sense, or whether it arises 

 from a distinct sense unknown to man, remains to be proved. 

 Then, too, insects are evidently capable of hearing extremely 

 shrill tones inaudible to a human being ; on the other hand, 

 deep and massive sounds, which strongly arouse man's feelings, 

 are unheard by the insect. The possession of these novel 

 senses, or the material variations in the visual and auditory 

 senses of the animal from the corresponding senses in man- 

 kind, must cause the aspect of the outer world which is pre- 

 sented to the animal mind to differ materially from that which 

 is presented to the human mind, and corresponding differences 

 in the psychical development must result. 



♦ Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxviii., p. 738. 



