122 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



to travel back to their parents' home before these 

 start on their journey, we must set aside at present, 

 until it can be proved that the route and time of their 

 migration arc separate and distinct. 



But given that the bird, flying from Australia to 

 New Zealand, knows, like the Bushman, the place 

 to which it desires to go, the graduated instances of 

 the exercise of the faculty which accomplishes this 

 desire hint the direction in which the answer must 

 be sought. If a civilised Englishman, planted on the 

 sea-sands, can, when blindfolded, walk for some 

 fifty yards almost straight in the direction of a point 

 on which he has previously fixed his gaze, we must 

 assume that he has the sense of direction in its 

 rudimentary form. The ability to do this depends, 

 first, on the actual or mental selection of a point 

 to aim at ; secondly, on a sensibility to any deviation 

 from the straight line towards this point. This 

 sensibility is subjective and not objective, and is only 

 liable to distraction and disturbance by landmarks. 

 It should work best in a vacuum. The migrating 

 bird, as it launches itself from the land into the upper 

 air, enjoys a high degree of freedom from those 

 suggestions and hints to the reason supplied by 

 material objects. In its flight by night the isolation 

 from physical reminders between the starting-point 

 and the goal is almost complete ; and it should be 

 noted that the main source of error to the birds 

 is precisely the occurrence of these material signs, 

 such as the lighthouse on Heligoland, and other 

 beacons set in the sea. 



