The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1880-11-12
The Sense or Direction in Animals.

a GENTLEMAN wnses to the oD,xiar
Sct=ee Month
1 was very much interested In the
account. published in your july num-
Der. ~ the experiments with the intel
ligent Cincinnati dog. and I think the
facts there developed tend strongly to
the proof of q theory that | have long
believed 10 be correct. viz: that some
Of the lower animals are endowed with
sense of location and direction which at
most l. only fundamentally possessed
by man. ! do not think that the feats Of
the carrier-pigeon can be accounted for
on the theory Of any Unite development
Of the sense Of sight. smell or hearing.
and the action Of honey-bees presents
the same difficulties to persons familiar
with the habits Of these interesting in
sects- In searching for wild honey. the
~bee-hunter provides himself with a
small box with a sliding door: inside
Of this box he puts some sweet sub
stance as a bait for the bees. When
several bees have collected in the box.
he closes the lid. As soon as they have
finished eating. he releases a bee.
which. after ascending high enough to
clear the surrounding trees. makes a
Z bee-line' for its hive. The hunter
marks this direction and carries his box
OF AZ right angles to the line made by
the first bee. and releases another bee;
he carefully marks the direction taken
BY this second bee. and if they are both
the same swarm. the hive will be found
at the point where these two lines
meet
4 might cite well-authcnticatcd cases
~ofcats, pigs and dogs finding their way
home. where such a feat would seem
impossible to man under like circum-
stances: my object, however, was not
to theorize. but simply to record what
l consider some interesting obserya-
tons bearing upon this subject.
Last spring. / built a trout pond in
my garden on the west side OF a run
ming brook discharging about six hun
dred cubic feet Of water per minute.
The brook isquite rapid where i passes
the pond. and the surface of the pond
Is some five feet higher than the sur
face Of the brook The pond is supplied
with water brought two thousand feet
in underground pipes and discharged
in a fountain in the center of the pond.
Common bull-frogs (Rana pipiens) oc-
casicually ind their WA into this
pond. On the 18th OF last July / found
three frogs in the pond. and shot all of
them with a pistol | dipped them up
with a scoop-net. and found two Of
them shot through the body. and the
other. a little fellow, weighing about
two ounces, was shot across the back.
the. bullet just raising the skin and
leaving Z white streak across its dark
green surface. emptied the three
frogs out Of the net into the swift
running water of the brook. and they
ilOated down stream ont Of sight. On
the 18th Of July, the dav following. l
found the wounded frog in the pond
again. and readily recognized it by the
scar from the bullet i found no Diff
cuitv in catching il in the s~coop-net,
and. fearing that the scar might disap-
pear from its back. | cut of the center
toe Of it, right foot. put the frog into a
paper bag. carried it down the brook
across q bridge, and finally threw il
into the stream some one hundred yards
below the pond.
On the 9th Of July | found the frog
back again. caught il. and. 30 as Il leaye
no doubt about It's identification. | cut
OF the middle toe of the left foot. /
then put the frog in the paper bag.
from the pond in a northeast
stopped and whirled the bar
around 80 as TO confuse any ideas that
il might have had Of direction. and then
changed M course. and finally released
the frog on the opposite side Of the
brook in an oat-field about an eighth Of
mile in an easterly direction from the
pond. To prevent the frog from get
tinr any idea from watching me,
On after releasing il, and did no.
20 back again TO the pond for several
hours. Three days afterward l saw the
frog in the pond again. but il was so
wild that | could not catch il with my
scoop net, and | aftcrward tried various
devices 10 capture il alive. but the mo-
II saw me approach the pond il
would jump in and remain hidden in the
the bottom until I left. Finally,
despairing Of catching il alive. and hav-
some doubts about it, identity. on
the 9th Of August ! shot it, and recog-
nized il by the absence Of the cutoff
toes.
The general direction is uphill from
The point where the frog was last re-
leased TO the pond, and about the same
distance in a down-hill course would
have taken the frog to the Ausable
River. IL still remains possible that
the frog waited until night, and then
INV tracks back to the pond,
but that seems improbable. think.
more so than 10 believe that the
knew all the time the direction of
he pond. and slowly worked its way