126 BEHAVIOR OF PIGEONS. 



If the birds thus released happen to be an old pair, with young or eggs to look after, 

 they naturally want to attend to these at the regular times. Let us suppose that we now 

 deal with a bird that wants to get back to its cage a male at 10 o'clock, the time the male 

 usually goes to the nest. At that time he will show an uneasiness and will try to find his 

 nest; he will try by flying up to get to it, but will not know the right way to go. So he 

 will fly hither and thither to many places, and it will sometimes seem a matter of accident 

 if he happens to get to the right door. As soon as he gets to the right door, where he can 

 readily see what he has been familiar with, he will go to his nest as quickly as possible 

 and take his position. 



My conclusion, from all that I have seen in the case of pigeons, is that they have no 

 means of finding their homes excepting their wings and eyesight and experience. Eyesight 

 and experience are the principal things. Pigeons have very, very sharp eyesight. Anyone 

 who has watched pigeons in the yard has noticed how quickly they see a hawk in the air. 

 They are always far quicker than I am in that respect, and even I can always tell when a 

 hawk is around by the behavior of the pigeons; they are looking in the direction of the hawk, 

 and I often find that the hawk is so high up that it is difficult to see; in fact, I may have 

 to hunt around for it. The pigeons see it immediately, and if there are many of them about, 

 they all seem to see it at the same time. There is no hesitation in the matter. 



We may consider for a moment the method used in training homing pigeons. As you 

 know, they are allowed their freedom and they are birds that like to fly about. They take 

 high flights and long flights, they become acquainted with the country round about. They 

 evidently recognize the mountains and the houses and know these houses one from another, 

 just as well as we know individuals. Then, for training, such birds are taken a certain 

 number of miles from home and have no difficulty in finding their way back. The next 

 time they are taken in the same direction a number of miles farther. They have had a 

 good deal of experience on the first trip, having circled round and round and taken in every- 

 thing. They have good memories, and when you take them 10 miles farther they really 

 catch the landmarks that they have seen before, and also become acquainted with land- 

 marks in other directions; so that in this way their acquaintance with the country, far and 

 near, is extended. The next time they are taken farther away in the same direction, and 

 the birds are thus gradually trained, trained in the country, directions, etc. It is evidently 

 this sort of experience that they depend upon in finding the way home. 



I may give you an instance of a bird's memory. I had a pair of homers that I took from 

 Chicago to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and left them there during the winter. The next 

 year I took them back. In the year of their absence I had moved my residence some 7 or 

 8 blocks from the home where these birds had spent several years. In taking them back 

 to Chicago I took them to the new home. I kept them for some time in the basement of 

 my home, since the pens were not ready to receive them ; a little later, probably some time 

 in January, I finally put them in a cot in the barn. Here they went to work and made a 

 nest, laid their eggs, and started incubation. I thought it would then be quite safe to let 

 them out; so I opened the cot and the birds were permitted to come out. The two birds 

 stayed on the cot stand for a few seconds, took a few looks in different directions, and then, 

 of a sudden, they both started and went straight down to the old home, 7 or 8 blocks away; 

 and they did not return. They left their eggs, although they wanted to take care of those 

 eggs as much as any parent birds would care for that. I went down to the old home and 

 found them on the top of the house. The pens that they used to live in had all been 

 destroyed and there was nothing except the house for them to recognize as their home. A 

 few days later I managed to get the male bird down and into a cage. I may note that I 

 left these birds for two or three days before I undertook to capture them again. The 

 female was lost, was perhaps killed by a cat. But I succeeded, as noted above, in getting 

 the male down into the cage. I put some seed into his cage, and after some time gave him 



