498 THE LAWS OF ORIENTATION AMONG ANIMALS. 



tried to explain thein by endowing" the beast with the calculation and 

 reasoning* powers which we would use if we were in his position. 



It is in this way that some pigeon fanciers attribute the return of the 

 pigeons to a wonderful memory of the locality. In his daily sport the 

 bird rising above his home will note the landmarks of the country, study 

 their relative position, and will notice them in relation to his home, 

 thus making a veritable triangulation of the country where he dwells. 

 According to others, the bird does in time acquire a profound knowledge 

 of the local magnetic currents. Such an hypothesis explains a mysteri- 

 ous fact by means of others still more mysterious. It has even been 

 seriously suggested that a pigeon orients himself by the course of the 

 stars. 



We think that these fantastic theories should be rejected; an animal 

 can not be a mathematician, a geometrician, an electrician, or an astron- 

 omer; and observers have been wrong to attribute any intellectual man- 

 ifestation to a material action which only puts to use a very perfect 

 organ. The animals most highly gifted in the art of orientation at a 

 distance are not, in fact, the most intelligent, but those which possess 

 the most powerful means of locomotion. 



Such is the idea which has inspired us in the study of the mechanism 

 of orientation. We have formulated a series of very simple propositions 

 founded on observation and explaining a number of facts long known. 

 It has been possible to draw from our theory many interesting infer- 

 ences which experiment has confirmed. In expressing our opinion of 

 this much disputed subject we hope to arouse discussion and incite to 

 new researches which will doubtless lead us to a complete knowledge 

 of the truth. 



