The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-08-07
Anassspss yHtettigstseer.
seTHE HOMING FACULTY."
Animals That Reach Their Homes Miles
Away.

strongest, perhaps, IN tne CARTIER P'seou'
The ordinary carrier pigeon manages TO
get home from distance Of forty miles.
The finer bred variety, particularly the
Belgian bird, can be loosed at q much
preater distance and will reach its house.
The finer and coarser varieties 90 about
in the same way. Thrown into the air
thew mount to great height, clrcling
about in spirals until suddenly they start
off in certain direction, and that dlrec-
t;on is home. Their speed is startling
and far swifter than the fastest railway
train These birds, there is no doubt,
rely on sight entirely. Few persons
realize how far the eye can see at great
distances in the air, OF. how keen is the
eve Of all birds. Kill goat in the Andes.
Not speck may cloud the blue vauls
above. half hour later . flock of condors d,
will be disputing over its remains. Inc
n;oeon flies round and round, higher and
higher until it sights some we'll remem-
hesed object, maybe steeple or tree,
That is its guide post. But pigeons some,
s times loose their way, get turned
around" in fact. frequently spoW-
covered landscape blots out al oo)eets
thew remember, and the confused olra
fntters helplessly to the earth.
Rnt byS what means does the aloatross,
which ialy floats behind a ship on the
ocean. for hours and hours, find its way
to the rocky isle, perhaps hundreds OF
miles distant. on which is the nest? Or
the fsigste bird, how does 1t know wna. ma.
path to take across mid ocean TO get
homer what marks does it have tor q
cnide9 These are hard questions 70
snswer, and shake the theory OF signt
and remembered objects. So, also, It Is
dificult to understand how the salmon !
every wear comes back from the deeps OF
the ocean to the river in which 1t was
born. Or how the bee, when It's loao OF
nectar is complete, flies straight to lts
hiye-in q bee line"
Less than twenty years ago, when Inc
whole subject began to be widely DIS
cl,ssad the London Field gave large
number of well instances
Ecf the homing faculties in dogs. 1tseems
to be very highly developed in the canine
race. Among the best of these is an
instance of q fox-hound, which was taken
in q recovered van from one part OF Eng
land to another, forty miles distant. Ar
irving at her destination she was kept
chained for four days, then hunted with
athe pack. Returning home late IN the
peyening, the huntamen observed her sle
down ina field, look gravely around tor
q few moments, and then disappear.
Search was made for her With out success.
The following morning her former owner
teIepraphed that Precious had turned up
at sIar. old home about midnight. She
had travelled about forty.five miles OF
rough, lonely country, passing through a
pooulous town, in less than eight hours.
Another good story in the same paper
was Of pointer dog taken by an officer
from liverpool to Belfast, and thence
after % day, or two fifty miles into the
interior Of Ireland. The dog had never
{ beer. in Ireland before, but the morning
after his departure appeared wagging his
tail and tired and footsore at the bar
racks of Belfast.
"a very intelligent sheep dog was
taken from Birmingham to Wolverton in
s. covered wagon, not being allowed to
look ont during the journey. The FIRST
night he escaped, and twenty-four hours
after appeared at his old home, his feet
bleeding and himself very much fahgued.
j, Another bright-eyed colly was taken
from Manchester to Liverpool by train
and thence to Bangor, in Wales, by
steamer. He, too, escaped and four
days later entertained his well-remem-
rbered kennel in the north. Still another
story. was of a little terrier which a me-
chanic living in olywell, Wales, visit.
ing his mother in M Manchester, took to
his home in q basket. In making the
journey the young man travelled by train,
wagon, steamer and afoot, both by day
and night. The dog escaped from him at
Holywell and somehow managed to get
over this complicated route to his Man
chester home. The strangest story in
this class of literature was furnished by
8, Scottish gentleman whose credibility
the editor of the Field vouched for. The
narrator, who lived in the north Of Scot
land, related that q friend of his residing
in Calcutta had several months before
written requesting him to send out good
colly dog. He had duly sent the dog by
steamer from Bristol. What was his
establishment q few weeks later to behold
one morning the little fellow enter his
house wagging his tail in a transport Of
10y to- be- home again. Inquiry ELECTED
the information that the dog had come
aboard Dundee collier from ship
hailing from Calcutta. Later a letter
came from his friends in India that the
dog had arrived there safely, but had
disappeared soon after.
This incident and that of the mechan.
ic's dog gave rise to the greatest discuss
ion at the time of any in the whole col
lection Of incidents. The two also drew
forth theory which is probably the true
one, namely, that the two animals in.
getting home we're guided by their sense
Of smell. A dogs nose, especially a
high.bred dogs, is extraordinary keen.
In the case of the little fellow who man.
aged to travel half the earth's circum-
ference, it was suggested that finding
himself kidnapped the idea how to escape
took possession of him. He carefully
noted, labeled and stored away in his
memory every smell along the route.
This, the theorist contended, explained
his land journey. But after getting
through the crowded streets of the Indi-
an city to the docks, how he selected the
proper vessel cut of the scores lying at
anchor there, is more difficult to account
for. 81 suggest, says the writer, that the
little animal had taken note of the rig
ging of the vessel in which he came ,ver,
and vas guided in that way to the right
ship; or, perhaps, the familiar Scotch
accent Of sailor aboard helped him
here, as it undoubtedly did in boarding
the collier at Dundee. But I would
prefer to leave to others the task of ex-
planning how the little dumb creature
unhesitatingly boarded s ship out of q
feet bound for his home, I confess 1.
cannot" A French writer, whose name