THE METHOD OF HOMING PIGEONS. 



759 



The literature * is open to the general criticism that the strange 

 and exceptional is noted, while by far the more important, com- 

 mon, and usual occurrence rarely appears in print; and thus 

 queer stories of dogs and cats, horses, mules, birds, insects, and 

 even men,f who are able to point unerringly north, no matter 

 how blindfolded or manipulated, come to predominate. Still, as 

 the methods of animals have come to be studied with scientific 



\ 



Y 



FARM-HOUSE 



Fig. 1. 

 Flight of six pigeons, open cage. 



accuracy, these notions have been compelled to flit from one form 

 to another in most lively fashion. 



Migratory birds, most careful study has proved, learn their 

 route from " zone to zone," and follow it solely by means of vision. 

 " This," Mr. Wallace says, " is now well ascertained." The work 

 of Sir John Lubbock, of Forel, and the perfectly conclusive ex- 

 periments of Mr. and Mrs. Peckham, J leave no resting place for 



* For a running discussion of the subject, refer to Science, vol. xx, pp. 207, 248, 291, 

 318, 358. 



f Rudski. Ueber ein angeborenes Gefiihl der Kardinalrichtung des Horizonts. Biolo- 

 gisches Centralblatt, vol. xi, p. 63. 



\ Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin, 1887, pp. 113 ff. 



