n6 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



which the sense of sight is in abeyance, and some 

 other guiding power independent of visible landmarks 

 must be assumed to exist. 



A rather striking, but not inexplicable, group of 

 cases comprises most instances of foxes, dogs, and 

 other quadrupeds which, after removal to considerable 

 distances, have found their way back to their original 

 homes. The Duke of Beaufort's vixen, which returned 

 from Badminton across the Severn to its old quarters 

 in the Forest of Dean, is typical of this class of 

 " returning animals/' though this case is far less extra- 

 ordinary than that of a fox which returned from Sussex 

 to its original home on Lord Hothfield's estate in 

 Northumberland. Both the fox and the dog are 

 exceptionally intelligent animals ; and given a strong 

 original faculty for finding their way across country, 

 the roaming propensity of foxes at certain seasons 

 and the reasoning powers of the dog must be held 

 to account for much of their success in returning 

 home from exile. Probably the following instance 

 of homing by young wild-ducks should come into 

 the same group, as the distance traversed was com- 

 paratively short, and the little birds may have been 

 able to ask their way. 



The ducklings, numbering about three hundred, were 

 hatched in incubators, reared under hens, and kept in a 

 rearing field with young pheasants, away from any pond, 

 until about five weeks old. They were then packed in 

 hampers, placed in a cart, and driven along a rather 

 circuitous route to a large pond in a park about half 

 a mile away. Between the park and the rearing field 

 there are large kitchen-gardens intersected by several 



