THE TRAVELS OF BIRDS 



a return route. We can, therefore, explain their 

 remarkable feat only by believing that they were 

 guided by what we call the sense of direction. 



No experiments that I know of seem to prove 

 more clearly than these of Professor Watson 

 that birds possess this sense. 



Doubtless it is this sense which each year leads 

 fishes to their spawning grounds and seals to 

 their "rookeries." It appears also to exist to 

 some extent in man, particularly uncivilized 

 man. But man, besides being more intelligent 

 than the animals below him, possesses powers of 

 observation and reason which make him less de- 

 pendent on the promptings of instinct than they 

 are. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY 



Do you ever have any difficulty in naming the 

 points of the compass when you are in a strange 

 place? Have you ever been lost in a fog? Can 

 you find your way about an unfamiliar city easily? 

 Have you ever seen Homing Pigeons flying back to 

 their loft? Do you know anything about the length 

 of the journeys these Pigeons make and the time 

 required to make them? If you have ever seen birds 

 146 



