The Homing Instinct 173 



water-logged and shell-marked, and on certain occasions 

 quite new to the dogs, that they were fearful that these 

 would prove too much even for their faithful followers. 

 But the curious point was brought out, that the dogs 

 seem to work much better than usual, at such times. As 

 one man said : " It seemed as though ' Jock ' divined my 

 fears, and put out an extra effort to show they were need- 

 less." 



I remember one test I made at the school with forty dogs. 

 They were taken in various directions simultaneously, for 

 two miles outwards, and released at a given moment. The 

 night was especially chosen, as being moonless, and with 

 a dense fog as well. It was, in fact, pitch-dark, of such 

 darkness as could be felt. The average time for the return 

 was fifteen minutes, though a few did so in ten minutes. 

 A few also took twenty minutes, and thirty-nine had re- 

 turned within that time. Only one took over half an hour. 



Of course, one reason for the more rapid return at night 

 is the absence of temptation on the road, such as other dogs, 

 vehicular traffic, and people. But this does not wholly 

 account for the undoubted fact, that, although these tempta- 

 tions are absent, there are other difficulties intensified, and 

 yet excellent results are obtained. It appears to me, 

 therefore, that dogs do observe points on their outward 

 journey, of which they make a note in the daytime, perhaps 

 without any conscious intention. That the newly-trained 

 dog does this especially, in order to help its sense of direc- 

 tion, but that, as the training proceeds, the dog finds 

 this sense developing, and the safest thing to go by in the 

 long run, and discards more and more the signs by the 

 road as guide-marks, so that it soon prefers to take the bee- 

 line, rather than trouble with the road, by which it was 

 taken out. I am further of opinion that this is so, by 



