484 THE LAWS OF ORIENTATION AMONG ANIMALS. 



to his home by all five senses working- together. Always, in every 

 species, one of the senses is more developed than the rest, and therefore 

 plays a more prominent part in the act of orientation — sight for the 

 bird, scent for the dog, etc. 



If orientation within restricted limits is easily explained by the com- 

 bined play of the five senses, it is not so as regards orientation in an 

 unknown and distant territory. Let us cite an examine : In order to lose 

 a cat you put him in a bag and carry him by railroad a distance of 80 

 kilometers. Set at liberty he returns to his home. Though his sight 

 and his local knowledge guided him constantly back to his home after 

 his daily wanderings, he yet will not know how to make the same use 

 of them on this occasion. His sight, were it excellent, could not be a 

 great help to him, as the slightest obstacle, the most insignificant rise 

 in the ground, would be sufficient to hide the familiar landscape. Is it, 

 then, his sense of smell that guides him ! In this case precautions seem 

 to have been carefully taken to put this sense at fault. One fact, how- 

 ever, remains — we are going to try to explain it — the cat has easily 

 returned to his home. 



Let us take another example : The pigeon fanciers of Brussels every 

 year let loose pigeons at Bordeaux. In preparation for this they make 

 three successive releases, at increasing distances, between Brussels and 

 Orleans, consequently towards Bordeaux, then after the release effected 

 at Orleans, without further preparation, the pigeons are set at liberty 

 at Bordeaux and they return to Brussels. Can we attribute their return 

 to a memory of the locality, to a piercing vision 1 Let us admit that in 

 the three preparatory flights the pigeons may have remarked certain 

 prominent landmarks between Brussels and Orleans. At the time when 

 they were let loose at Bordeaux, the elevation of the land, the rotundity 

 of the earth, set limits to their vision, however piercing it might be. 

 To see Orleans from Bordeaux the pigeon would have to rise several 

 kilometers above the earth, which would be physically impossible. 1 



Let us cite another case : Some pigeons belonging to a pigeon fancier 

 in Orleans had traveled in the direction of Beims. Some one conceived 

 the idea of releasing them 500 kilometers out to sea beyond Nantes, 

 without any preparation, and they almost all returned. In this 

 example, as in those preceding, the return can not be explained by the 

 working of any one of the five senses. It is therefore necessary to 

 acknowledge the intervention of a distinct organ serving for orientation 

 from a distance. Since the function exists, we are not illogical in sup- 

 posing that there is, corresponding to that function, an organ which we 

 will call the sense of direction. 



We therefore admit that orientation near at hand is easily explained 

 as the use of the five senses, and that orientation from a distance rests 

 solely on the working of a sixth sense. 



1 Pigeons rarely lly at mon^ than 300 meters above the ground. Set at liberty from 

 :i balloon more than'2,000 meters high, fchey descend with a dizzy rapidity, letting 

 themselves fall, and not resuming their flight until near the earth. 



