The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-04-18
THEY FLY BY SIGHT.
Carrier Pigeons Are Not Guided by
Mysterious Senses.

Professor Hodge Has Made Close Study of
This Subject and Presents Some Interest
ing Conc1usions-Some of the Birds Are
Chumps, and All Have to Learn.
Professor G. f. Hodge of Clark univer-
sity, at Worcester, Mass, has been expert
menting to ascertain how carrier pigeons
find their way home, and the result of his
work is given in The Popular Science
Monthly. 1t entirely dissipates the popu-
lar notion that carrier pigeons are guided
by some direction sense, !" or blind in
stinct, Or as the French have put it, that
they follow certain electrical currents,
which their delicate senses apprehend.
The result of Professor Hodges work Is
to demonstrate that carrier pigeons are
guided by sight alone. He says that no
carrier pigeon can find his way over strange
country, that he is likely to get lost in a
fog and that until he learns from expert
ence he is often fooled by colors or objects
which appear to be familiar Thus with
some young pigeons with which the pro-
est red barn when let out of closed cage,
supposing it to be the red barn near their
home loft, and for a time they would ny
w ally ICl petlli UllStU CtbillO LII oASAo'
Another curious fact was noticed about
these young pigeons. The moment they
were liberated from their home loft they
flew to the top of the nearest chimney
and began to look about and take mental
notes. Thirty five minutes were thus oc-
cupied in noting every detail of their sur
roundings, looking eagerly this way and
that and covering all the points Of the
Iooynod tha et1au IF a
land, . they were ready to be taken off a
quarter of mile or SO, when, flying up to
a great height, they saw some familiar OBJ
ject to which they would fly at once and
quickly find their way to the loft.
1t was noticed by the professor, how
ever, that some of these pigeons were fools
and others very sagacious. The fools got
lost easily did. not proceed upon any ra-
tional basis and allowed themselves to be
deceived by trees and hills which took them
in the wrong direction. The more saga
cious pigeons when liberated in strange
place would fly to great height in a con-
stantly widening circle. In very few
minutes they would sweep a territory 30
miles extent of vision. Even when the
home loft was less than mile away some
Of the carrier pigeons wasted immense eff
lOIU dllQ Oll1O Ill u Ing w AAAAS Ao-
One of them made four circles and rose
high in the air. To the south and west
were lakes and woods with but few farm
houses Toward the north was the village
of South Madison, Wis, near which the
experiments were held. The pigeon rushed
off in the wrong direction to inspect red
barn, which he thought looked like that
near the loft, but he came back to the
e,fo inf from thoro cfa rsfp6 off
to the state capital He reached the city,
but found nothing familiar and spent some
time circling over it, having covered dis
tance of 10 miles in less than eight min
utes He was liberated at o'clock and
returned to the loft at 5, having flown, it
was estimated, at the rate of a mile a min
ute.
A week later this same pigeon flew home
from the same hill in less than a minute.
The first flights of the carrier pigeons were
very crooked and tortuous, but after they
had been once or twice over the ground
they flew almost in straight line and
with incredible speed. Liberated from
boat on lake, it was noticed the birds al
ways flew to the nearest land. One of
them, a 'sfoo" pigeon, looked over the
same ground again and again, with no ap-
parent confidence in his own ability, and
then flew back to the boat in the lake.
One of his companions, a clever bird,
kept increasing his circles over the land
until some familiar object caught his eye,
and from there he quickly found his way
home The former was subsequently lost
when liberated with II others, all of whom
found their way to the home loft. This
also goes to show that carrier pigeons do
not fly in focks and render no assistance
to each other, each apparently desiring to
paddle his own canoe.
The birds, it seems can always find their
way back to the point from which they
start, and failing to learn the way to their
home will often return there. When they
proceed by making constantly widening
circles, however, there is no use of their
returning for q fresh start. Some of the
carrier pigeons, esltfially the younger
ones, started off in a zigzag course when
liberated and missed familiar objects at
short distance.
The spiral, says Professor Hodge, is the
ideal way to cover every inch of the
ground. He says that carrier pigeons do
not circle about in the air for sport or ex-
ercise, but that it is part of their search
ing instinct, always on the alert to see
their way and note the landscape. In
searching fer a lost tennis ball he noticed
that the natural instinct of dogs and men
seemed to be the spiral widening out from
the center, but that some boys searched by
a series of straight lines. Professor Hodge
estimates that the distance at which a
prominent landmark is visible is three
miles.
The best time made in the first flight Of
a bird was 26 miles in hours and 8 min
utes. Taking three miles as the limit of
vision over broken country, Professor
Hodge estimates that the least length Of
the involute of circle which would bring
bird from distance of 26 miles to with
in sight of the loft is 219 miles, and he
says that in five hours it is not likely that
the pigeon flew Less than $50 miles.
What becomes OF the lost carrier pi-
geons? That is a question suggested by the
numerous disappeaFances of trained birds
within the experience of every pigeon fan
cier 1t has been supposed that they united
with others of their breed, but it is rare
thing for strange pigeons to fly into the
loft. To be lost Ks supposed to cause
the carrier pigeon the utmost distress Of
mind. Its whole life and all its instincts
appear to be directed to finding its way