6o6 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[June 29, 1 8 



THE HOMING "INSTINCT." 



MUCH attention has been drawn lately to what is 

 called the " homing instinct," or, more correctly, 

 the "homing faculty," by which certain of the lower 

 animals are enabled to find their way through trackless 

 deserts, over the seas, and even in regions which they 

 have never visited before. The facts of the case — and 

 facts there undoubtedly are— have been much over- 

 clouded with exaggerations and distortions. All such 

 superfluous matter must be ruthlessly stripped away 

 before any scientific explanation can ever be attempted. 

 This is a task which, for very obvious reasons, cannot be 

 undertaken within our narrow limits. New observa- 

 tions are called for, no less than a critical revision of such 

 as have already been recorded. All we can do at 

 present is to clear out of the way a few preliminary 

 errors. 



In the first place, the power of track-finding without 

 any landmarks manifest to our ordinary senses is not 

 confined to the lower animals, or to any of them, but 

 extends to man also. Dr. B. Moritz, in the Verliandhmgeti 

 der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, states that the 

 Ma'dan of the swamps of Mesopotamia possess in a 

 most remarkable degree the faculty of " orientation," 

 /'.«., of finding direction. Rewrites, " We wonder how 

 the Bedouins, who in the trackless desert, even in parts 

 where a European fails to recognise any land-mark, con- 

 trive to find their way correctly, and we forget that this 

 faculty is by no means common to all the Bedouins, but 

 the power seems to be much more highly developed 

 among the Ma'dan. Whilst the Bedouin in the desert 

 has at least an open view on all sides, and can recognise 

 any special feature of the district, be it far or near, the 

 Ma'dan, almost up to the neck in water, is surrounded 

 on all sides by reeds and sedges, often yards in height, 

 and which are constantly changing their appearance." 



Yet these people even in the night find their way with 

 safety among the thickets of water-vegetation and 

 amidst a net-work of deep channels. 



Here, then, is a problem for lovers of the marvellous. 

 We have surely no right to assume that these Ma'can 

 possess a " magnetic sense," like that which has been 

 attributed to birds. We find them endowed with the 

 same organs of sense and the same mental faculties as 

 ourselves, though doubtless cultivated in a different 

 manner. Their sight, and above all, their disposition 

 and power to observe closely and accuratelj', have been 

 developed by the experience of successive generations, 

 whilst in us the same faculties have been dulled by 

 generations of town life, and by the habit of drawing all 

 our knowledge from books. But in these deserts of 

 water, mud, and reeds, how little of a permant nature is 

 there to observe. The task of the redskin when tracing 

 a foe through the American forests is much easier. 



Another instance of the intensification of the ordinary 

 human faculties, though exerted in a different manner, is 

 given by Mr. E. W. White, F.2.S., in his " Cameos 

 from the Silver Land." Speaking of the Rastreadores 

 of Rioja, in the Argentine Republic, he writes, " These 

 men will enter a field in the middle of a pitch-dark 

 night, and out of a troop of strange loose mules will 

 unerringly lasso their own, and march them off, distin- 

 guishing those that occupy their several places in the 

 team. Although 1 have had considerable experience, I 

 never could detect by what sense they were guided." 



Thus we see that men possessing the same faculties 

 as ourselves — the burden of proof, of course, devolving 



upon those who would assign to them any others — can 

 execute tasks which to us civilised, or perhaps, stupefied, 

 Europeans would seem to involve some Deus ex machina 

 in the shape of a mysterious " instinct." 



With the lower animals the case is different. We 

 know that the senses of some, e.g., the scent of dogs 

 and of moths, or the sight of most birds, are vastly more 

 acute than our own. As regards the Articulata, we may 

 even, without any sin against scientific method, assume 

 that they are endowed with senses of which we are 

 devoid, and of which we can form no direct conception, 

 as facts observed indicate that such is the case. 



But acute and painstaking naturalists find themselves 

 more driven to question the infallibility of the " homing 

 faculty." Thus a number of bees have been caught, 

 marked, carried out to different distances at sea, and 

 then and there released. The number which found their 

 way back to the hive near the shore was very fairly pro- 

 portionate to the distance to which they had been 

 carried, and was much smaller than if the insects had been 

 conveyed away to a similar distance overland, and then 

 set at liberty. This seems to indicate that bees find their 

 way home by the aid of landmarks, which they remember, 

 over the country around the hive, and that where such 

 landmarks are wanting, they are, indeed, at sea. 

 Solitary bees, when beginning to built a nest, have been 

 witnessed apparently noting the position of the nest 

 with reference to two or three prominent objects near at 

 hand, which were evidently to be used as land marks. 



The difficulty of "straying" a cat is well known. 

 But few persons when enlarging on the " homing " 

 power of these animals reflect that they are in the habit 

 of exploring the country for perhaps two miles around 

 their homes ; at least, we have seen a sleek, domestic 

 cat bird's-nesting at fully that distance from any human 

 habitation. Their habit of climbing trees and sitting on 

 housetops also gives them the opportunity of studying 

 the " lay " of the countrj'. 



As for the stories we read of dogs and cats being con- 

 veyed to some new destination by rail, or on board a 

 boat, perhaps even enclosed in a basket, and then find- 

 ing their way back by road, it is difficult to say how far 

 the facts may have been " coaxed." 



Meteorological Observations in a Balloon. — Accord 

 ing to Oiel et Terre, M. H. Lecoq ascended from La Villette, 

 Paris. A storm coming on, the balloon entered a region 

 of greenish-grey vapours which completely concealed the 

 earth. It revolved continually, ascending and descending 

 without the intervention of the aeronant. Sometimes the 

 sensation of a current of hot air was perceived, when the 

 balloon immediately rose, on one occasion to the height 

 of S,ooo feet. At this height the storm was in full force, 

 and electric discharges were continually taking place 

 between the cumulus in which the balloon was floating 

 and a higher stratum of cirrus. The most striking facts 

 were the very violent agitation of the air and the ascend- 

 ing and descending whirlwinds which were produced in 

 the midst of the electric cumulus. 



Ancient Egyptian Art. — It is not generally known that 

 the process of depositing copper from its solutions upon 

 metallic or non-metallic objects, was known and practised 

 by the ancient Egyptians. Earthen vessels, figures, points 

 of wooden weapons, and even statues of life-size, coated 

 with a thin layer of copper, have been found in consider- 

 able numbers in their tombs. 



