32 HOMING A^^D RELATED ACTIVITIES OF BIRDS. 



and soon developed a passion for riding in canoes, rowboats, and the steam-launch. How- 

 ever, he never was taken outside of the island and had possibly been 500 yards away, but 

 not farther. 



One day we took him on an excursion in a launch, some 6 miles from the camp. He was 

 not able to see the island as we passed, because he was down in the bottom of the boat. 

 On the return trip we got out at a Uttle store about 2| miles from the camp by a direct 

 water route. Some of our boys were in a canoe at the dock, and the dog jumped into the 

 water and tried to foUow them. They did not see him, nor did we know of this until later. 

 It was dusk, and after searching for him in vain we returned to the camp. He is a valuable 

 dog, much beloved by aU of us, and after dinner that evening we started out in canoes, went 

 back to the store, and searched everywhere for him. We had heard that a dog (it must have 

 been ours) had been seen swimming to the rock on which was a range hght, some three- 

 quarters of a mile from the point, but no trace was found of him there. At 11 o'clock that 

 night the dog reappeared at the store, put his nose in at the door, and when they tried to 

 call him he seemed frightened and disappeared in the darkness. There is a way by land 

 from the store to our camp — 6 miles of unbroken primeval country, burned-over forest 

 with tangled swamps every quarter of a mile. It is an almost impassable territory where 

 even the Indians get lost. 



The next morning, while we were preparing breakfast, the dog appeared swimming down 

 the channel. Our Indians insisted that he had spent the night swimming from island to 

 island, and that when dayUght came he smelled our camp — the smoke of the kitchen fire 

 and the odor of the breakfast being prepared. At aU events he made his way home, and if 

 he swam directly from the Point it was 2^ miles by water, but if he swam from island to 

 island it must have been a much greater distance. The channel is not direct and open, but 

 winds in and out, and he had no knowledge of the way, so that I do not beheve it is possible 

 that he could have been guided by any landmarks. 



We have taken pains to write to the contributors of each of these stories and 

 to obtain what supplementary data we could. The incidents seem actually 

 to have happened, but none of the contributors could state with accuracy facts 

 enough to enable us to use the material in a scientific way. 



Last summer a similar incident, with not so favorable an outcome, happened to one of 

 the writers at his summer cottage on Stony Lake, Ontario, Canada. An 18-months-old 

 pure-bred cocker spaniel went from the cottage to the store a mile away in the canoe with a 

 member of the household. The store is situated on a large island containing several 

 hundred acres. In the hurry of leaving the store the dog was left behind. After luncheon 

 we set out to find him, first going to the store. The dog had disappeared. We then began 

 to paddle aroimd the island, calling the dog at every moment. We had just about given 

 up hopes of finding him when we happened to glance at one of the small islands to the 

 southwest of the island on which the store is situated, and in a direction almost opposite 

 from that in which our cottage lay. There we saw the dog standing forlornly on the shore. 

 A new house was under construction on this island and the carpenter told us that a short 

 time before the dog had left the main island and had swum to his place. The distance 

 from the store to the point where we found him was probably a mile and a quarter. It is 

 interesting to note that our own cottage was under course of construction, and the fact that 

 the dog finally landed at a place where hammering was going on might indicate that it was 

 the sound of the hammering which made him take the direction which he did take. He 

 probably wandered aU over the large island and at some time in the course of his wandering 

 the sound of hammering may have become audible. 



Both Hodge and Fabre* give data bearing upon orientation in cats. The 

 following account is summarized from Hodge. f 



A Maltese torn cat was taken out in a row boat on one of the large Wisconsin lakes on a 

 sultry, extremely dark night. The boat was rowed due north straight out towards the mid- 

 dle of the lake, which is 2 miles in width. At first the cat was quiet and then he began to 

 get restless and extremely anxious to get home. He would climb to the end of the boat, 



*Souv. ent., n, p. 124. tPopuJar Science Monthly, 44, p. 758. 



