114 DARWINISM AND THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE 



amongst men there are memory-prodigies. Who has 

 not heard of the Hindoo who could repeat, word for 

 word, long stories that he had only heard once. If 

 circumstances arose that brought about the survival of 

 such men alone, there would soon be a race on the 

 earth with prodigious memories. 



Nor is there anything mysterious about the sense of 

 orientation that enables the bird to keep the right 

 direction when its eye cannot see any point to guide it. 

 There are men that can find their way in the forest 

 without any path or track. We read that the Indians 

 never went astray in it. We are, moreover, assured by 

 some writers that dogs which have been taken away for 

 hours together in closed carriages or trains will find 

 their way home by the shortest, and a quite unknown 

 route, when they are set free. Here we have something 

 exactly similar to the migration of the bird, which, 

 though it has been taken a long journey in the darkness 

 of night by its parents, has retained the direction so 

 well that it can follow the same route without guidance 

 in the following year, and never go astray. 



Finally, we must observe that the migratory birds are 

 greatly assisted in keeping to the right way by the fact 

 that their social instinct is developed especially strongly 

 at the period of migration, and vast flocks of them make 

 the journey together. Whether some older bird that 

 knows the route from having migrated several times 

 leads the way, has again been called into question of 

 late. This is not necessary, however, as we have seen. 

 In any case, it is an advantage to travel in flocks, 

 because a large number of birds will be less likely to 



