214 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 



of pigeon-trainers shows this satisfactorily, and that of the 

 falconers supports it. The far-reaching eyesight of birds 

 is well known. Kill a goat on the Andes, and in half an 

 hour flocks of condors will be disputing over the remains, 

 though when the shot was fired not a single sable win^ blot- 

 ted the vast blue arch. The same is true of the vultures 

 of the Himalayas and elsewhere. Gulls drop unerringly 

 upon a morsel of food in the surf, and hawks pounce from 

 enormous heights upon insignificant mice crouching in fan- 

 cied security among the meadow stubble, while an Arctic 

 owl will perceive a hare upon the snow (scarcely more 

 white than himself) three times as far as the keenest-eyed 

 Chippewa who ever trapped along Hudson's Bay. The 

 eyesight, then, of pigeons and falcons is amply powerful to 

 show them the way in a country they have seen before, 

 even though the points they are acquainted with be a hun- 

 dred miles apart. 



In the cases of horses, dogs, and cats the explanation 

 may be more difficult, and not always possible to arrive 

 at. Horses and mules are extremely observant animals, 

 and quick to remember places ; everybody who has ever 

 had anything to do with them must know this. Their 

 recollection is astonishing. The Eev. J. G. Wood tells of a 

 horse which knew its old master after sixteen years, though 



