shields] a sixth sense IN BIRDS AND MAMMALS 367 



geese do, only with much more showiness in the evolution of those 

 figures. They all utter the same cry or call when they arise in 

 flight from the ground, and this has been Hkened by some to the 

 "sleighbell chorus of the blackbird." 



The colors of the longspurs make it possible for the female to 

 keep on her nest until almost walked upon. The general tendency 

 of color is a streaky brown, with crown and cheeks black and nape 

 of the neck chestnut. The nest is placed beneath or under the 

 cover of tufts of grass or within a clump of small willows. Few, 

 indeed, are the people who ever have seen the nests, for the long- 

 spurs breed in America, north of Labrador, but if you keep your 

 eyes opened — you who live in that part of the country north of 

 Kentucky, Kansas and even Texas — you m^y see this Lapland 

 longspur even as late as the middle of March. It is one of our 

 best winter visitants. 



A Sixth Sense in Birds and Mammals 



G. O. Shields 



The following facts and suggestions are offered in the hope that 

 in the discussion which may follow, some light may be thrown 

 on a subject that has long been a mystery to thousands of thought- 

 ful people. That is : 



How does a bird or a quadruped find its way home when con- 

 fined in a dark box for instance, carried miles away, and liberated? 



How does a bird or an animal find food or water, that is miles 

 and miles away, beyond the possible range of sight or smell? 



It may not be very gratifying to human pride to suggest that 

 birds and other animals know more than we do ; yet we must admit 

 that they do know more about some things than we do. 



The homing instinct, or the sixth sense, is perhaps more strik- 

 ingly developed in the homing pigeon than in any other living 

 creature. The ability of these birds to find their way home, after 

 having been taken long distances away, often confined in dark 

 boxes or baskets, is almost incredible; yet we know that the birds 

 almost invariably find their way back to the loft where lialched and 

 reared. 



Thompson Seton tells a beautiful story of a homer in bis " Animal 

 Heroes" under the cai^tion of " Arnaux : The Clironicle of a 1 lorn - 

 ing Pigeon," and anv of you wlio have not read it, slionld do so 



