The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-27
THE HOMING INSTINCT.
The HOming Instinct Characteristic
Is Very Marked in Many Species of
Animals,

Animals,
From the London Times.
It may be interesting to those who are
following the correspondence in your col
umns on the homing instinct of birds and
beasts to know that the characteristic is
very marked in cattle and horses.
Any stockman in Australia would corrob-
crate this statement, and would be sup
ported, doubtless, by the experiences of
gauchos in Argentine and cowboys in
North America.
Cattle removed from the country where
they were bred to new pastures, although
several hundreds of miles away will at
once head back for home. A stockman'S
chief duty in stocking up new country is
to ride almost daily ''round the track" and
beat the cattle in, otherwise the distance
they would travel homewards in a few
days would be very considerable.
A horse was once pointed out to me in
Queensland which had come back 400
miles in four months from the Maranoa to
the Wide Bay district.
If it is contended that cattle and horses
would simply travel by their recollection
of the country they came by it might at
once be answered and proved by facts
that however circuitous the road by which
they came they would invariably head
straight back with straight course.
Some men are also credited with the
power of making their way back to a
certain spot even after two or three days
wandering in trackless and unknown re-
gions, where the nature of the country
gave no assistance in the way of land
marks.
Unfortunately the Australian bushman
is not usually scientific, or there would be
| ample opportunity for him to decide sat
isfactorily some of these knotty points.
With reference to seabirds, one would
like to know for instance, how the alba
tross returns to his Westinghouse when
he is hundreds of miles away from it, alb
solutely without landmarks. In the case
of the birds, referred to by one of your
correspondents, flying to an isolated shoal,
this might probably be accounted for by
the power of smell. But the distance at
which the albatross and mollmawk are
found from land precludes this eXplana-
ton. Nor can the sun, even If visible,
be of much use unless, we are to suppose
that not only has the bird the instinct to
keep the sun on his eft in the morning if
he wishes to travel south, but has also
the amazing reasoning power of being able
to correct his flight in relation to the sun
all the morning till he found it on his right
in the afternoon. Unless he was able to
do this ne would be like many a new chum
or tenderfoot, who. having followed the
sun all day, finds himself roosting at
| night where he rose in the morning.
Only a few weeks ago a statement APP
| peared in print that one or two pigeons
! bred in Melbourne and sent over to New
Zealand returned to their home after the
| lapse of a short time. One would much
like to know whether this was real
pigeon or a mere 'canard.'
If you will allow me very small space
| in the Times newspaper, l will, without
entering into the discussion raised by Mr..
| Tegetmeier give two instances which will
| prove that certain animals do possess
| homlng instincts. In the summer of 1888
! l was a boy at Elton. / had two blood
| hounds, a dog and a bitch, both 4 to 8
| years of age. 1 kept them at livery
stable. received hint that 1 must not
| keep them So 1 wrote to a friend at
! Brigton, who agreed to receive them
| settled with the coachman of the Windsor
| and Brighton coach to take them. They
were slung on the hind axle in a large
| hamper Twice on the road he gave them
water, the last time four miles from Brigh-
| ton, where the road from Leatherhead and
| Dorlxing joins the one from Horley and
| Crawley. When the coach got to Brighton
the hamper was empty. Between and
next morning both the bloodhounds were
| in my room a my DANES in Eton.
| Some twenty-five years since a keeper
| in the Forest Of Dean in the spring of
| the year dug out a vixen fox and a lit
| ter of cubs and sent them to me at Bad
| minton, partly by road and partly by rail-
way From where they were taken out
| of the earth is certainly over twenty-four
| miles and the wide and rapid river Sew
! crn flows between Their and Badminton
/ examined the marks on the vixen and
| put her and her cubs into an enclosure
| with an earth in It, When they were about
/ months old an outer mouth. Of the earth
was opened, the entrance to 1t sanded,
and we saw by the marks that the vixen