HOW ANIMALS GET HOME. 221 



It seems to me, therefore, that the examples cited above, 

 and a host of others like them, show that all domestic ani- 

 mals have a very strong love of places and persons. In 

 many cases this homesickness is so strong as to lead them 

 to desert a new abode, when transferred to it, and attempt 

 to return to their former home ; but they rarely or never 

 do so without having a definite idea in their minds as to 

 the route, although it is often very long and circuitous, and 

 hence they almost invariably succeed ; otherwise, they do 

 not try. It is not every animal, by a long list, that deserts 

 a new home the moment the chain is loosed ; only one, now 

 and then. In regard to the method used by them to find 

 their way, it appears that they have no special instinct to 

 guide them, but depend upon their memory of the route, 

 the knowledge of which was acquired by an attentive study 

 through the senses of sight, smell, and hearing, possibly by 

 communication with other animals. The phenomenon, as 

 a whole, affords another very striking example of animal 

 intelligence. 



