THE MIGRATION OF ANIMALS. 121 



members of the local Ornithological Society, each bird being duly 

 marked with the Society's official stamp. On Friday morning at ten 

 o'clock, says the account from which we quote, in favourable weather, 

 the five birds were started. They dashed from the basket without 

 hesitation, and disappeared from sight in about one minute. A tele- 

 gram was received in Reading the same evening, announcing that all 

 the birds had reached home before four o'clock, the information also 

 remarking the official marks of the Reading Society, by way of sure 

 identification of the pigeons. Three of the five birds, it may be 

 mentioned, belonged to Mr. Barker, and two to a friend. The latter 

 were found in their loft at Brussels shortly after half-past three o'clock ; 

 Mr. Barker, on reaching home a little before four o'clock, finding his 

 three pigeons there. The birds were feeding quietly, as if they had 

 been reposing at home throughout the day. The account adds 

 that the pigeons in question had " done a lot of work in other direc- 

 tions," but that their only journey before being sent to Reading was 

 one "toss" of about forty miles in extent. Allowing fifteen minutes 

 for difference of time, the duration of the flight from Reading to 

 Brussels was five hours fifteen minutes, the flight being at the rate 

 of 1,329 yards per minute. 



The instincts or faculties in virtue of which birds are enabled to 

 fly over many hundreds of miles of land and sea, naturally bear the 

 closest possible relationship to the habit and means of migration. 

 What explanation can be given of the wondrous powers of guidirig 

 flight possessed by birds at large ; and through what special sense or 

 senses is the " flight-faculty " exercised ? Any attempt which may be 

 made towards the solution of these questions may fitly be prefaced 

 by a confession of our almost complete ignorance of the means 

 whereby extensive flights alluded to are directed. A high authority 

 on matters ornithological has remarked that we are unable even to 

 approach the solution of the question. Carrier-pigeons possess the 

 " homing " faculty, as it has been termed, in a typical degree, but 

 when inquiry is made regarding the nature of this faculty, the answer 

 that these birds are guided by a knowledge of landmarks is made. 

 Admitting, however, that the " homing " faculty is so founded, the 

 admission demands the exercise of a sense of sight keener far than 

 that possessed by ordinary animals, and of a memory for locality which 

 almost excels our ideas of instinct as distinguished from reason 

 although, indeed, there are not wanting numerous examples of a 

 " memory sense " in dogs, which find their way back to their homes, 

 and by paths unknown to them, with an instinct which may be 

 described as literally unerring. But the "homing" faculty of the 

 pigeon, resting, as is maintained, on a knowledge of landmarks, will 

 hardly suffice to explain the flight of birds over large tracts of sea 

 where guiding marks are non-existent. Then, again, many birds 



