io6 Bird -Lore 



We take him in a railway car to Grand-Couronne, and we free 

 him at a few steps from his cote. But the sense of distant orientation, 

 the sixth sense, is alone in working order, to the exclusion of the 

 first five. The bird takes up again his reverse scent, passes in sight 

 of his dwelling as if hypnotized, without seeing it, and reaches 

 Evreux once more at the point through which passed that itinerary 

 which he is trying to re-establish. 



His calculation is bafifled; brought back to his owner's home and 

 given his freedom, he, this time, is brought to himself. The five 

 senses, awakened by stronger sensations, resume the upper hand and 

 the sixth sense, becoming useless, ceases to work. 



There is at Orleans an enclosed Pigeon cote having no external 

 issue for the little prisoners. The Pigeons that are shut up in it, 

 and that come from the military Pigeon cotes at Paris and from 

 the North, live there in semi-obscurity and in absolute ignorance 

 of what passes outside. When, after a month or two of captivity, 

 they are to be set at liberty, every precaution is taken to carry them 

 away for the release many kilometers from their transient cote, to 

 which, besides, they are not attached by any agreeable remembrance. 

 Now, we have stated elsewhere that very often Pigeons know how 

 to find that house without even knowing its outside appearance. 

 They perch themselves on the roof, then, after a short stop, they 

 take their bearings and disappear in order to go back to the cote 

 where they were born. 



The law of reverse scent allows us to explain the conduct of the 

 Pigeon. He is carried away, set at liberty, let us say, at the station 

 of Aubraes, takes up the reverse scent and hovers about the cote of 

 exclusion, which represents to him the end of the itinerary by which 

 he has been brought to Orleans. It is then from there that he will 

 set out to take up in an inverse sense the road, the remembrance of 

 which has remained deeply engraved on his memory. 



We could multiply examples of the same kind to show that the 

 Pigeon astray always comes back to the point of his release. We 

 may be convinced of this truth by glancing at the roofs of railway 

 stations of Paris, Orleans, Blois, Tours, Poitiers, Bordeaux, etc., 

 where, every Sunday during the fine weather, people set at liberty 

 hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of Pigeons ! On Monday we 

 would notice the return of numerous Pigeons lost the day before, 

 that, not having succeeded in their first trial in finding their natal 

 roof, are going to make a second attempt, and sometimes a third, 

 in order to find the right road. 



When set at liberty the day before the Pigeon took his flight, 

 he fled swiftly from that point of departure to which, apparently. 



