The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1898-10-12
THE CARRIER PIGEON
MYSTERY OF tbs METHOD BY WHICH
IT FINDS ITS WAY.
Kow French Scientist Tries to Explain
the Taking of Bearings and Komeward
Flight by These Swift Winged Messen-
gers of the Air.


Flight by These Swift Winged Messen-
gers of the Air.
The faculty possessed by many aai-
mails for finding their way home
through an unknown region has always
been more or less Of q mystery. It rises
to its height in the case of the carrier
pigeon, and its would be explainers fall
back On expedients that range all the
way from mysterious special sense OF
"orientation' down to everyday or
dinary observation of landmarks, such
as man uses when he fnGs his way.
Most authorities are now inclined 70
take middle course, and believe that
the pigeon finds its way by methods
more or less ordinary, but by a very
extraordinarily skilled combination cf
them
We translate below part of an article
on the subject, contributed by M. A.
Thauzies to the Revue Scientifoue
The authors assumption that the ami
NAL organism is sensitive to magnetic
conditions is contrary to scientific OBJ
servation and experiment, but this is
only detail of his theory and does not
materially affect it. NJ. Thauzies, after
giving reasons for rejecting the theory
of a special sense and other hypothesis
put forth on the subject, proceeds to
state the following facts which he be-
lieves to be firmly established:
''First. trained pigeons, even
if taken very far away-say several
hundred miles from the pigeon cot
get their bearings, in normal atmos-
phere, with wonderful promptness,.
without turning about in other direc-
tions and without rising to a great
height Before one can count SO they
have disappeared.
"Second.-These same pigeons, left
in open air in their baskets several min
utes before releasing them, while they
are given food and drink, look around
them, walk to and fro, evidently study
ing the sky, until, having found out,
doubtless, what they sought, they re-
main quiet. Then, if the baskets are
opened, they fly off low and almost
horizontally, without zigzags and IN
straight line in the proper direction.
"Third The same pigeons, trans
,rted to strange region-that is, for
instance, where they must make a
southerly journey when they are accus-
toned to make northerly one, betray
a striking degree of disquietude in their
baskets at the moment Of departure,
They seem to be surprised and some
what taken aback. AS soon as they are
free they fly off eastward, making large
ellipses toward the sun. Then they ex-
plore in all directions, but they always
return to the east with patient tenaci-
ty that seems to signify that there is
the key of the problem, and that there
alone Will be found it's solution. After
several minutes of this, having reached
an altitude of $50 to 200 yards, they
disappear in the proper direction.
Fourth earlier in The morn
ing they are released the more promps
is their success i'll getting their dlrec-
tion. After noon, even in calm weather,
and even if the distance is small, their
orientation is dull, slow, wavering and
without viyacity.
''Fifth.-When the day comedies
with a change of the moon, the oraenta-
ton both at the point Of departure and
also on the route becomes difficult, the
birds return slowly and at long inter
vals
"Sixth. even when ttks sk.EA
seems everywhere clear, if the atmos-
phere is undergoing any Of those invlsl-
BILE disturbances that are revealed only
bv the most delicate instruments OF our
observatories, the pigeons. as IN the
preceding case hesitate, lag behind and
sometimes take double the time that
would be necessary for their journey
under other circumstances.
"What must be concluded from these
facts?
"The carrier pigeon, bird eminente
~ SlSCtE1C, <iu0 Va C->NS1SA ~ AASA w. S~>S
ceptibility, is also endowed with pro-
digiously sensitive vision and with spe-
cial intelligence that cannot be doubted.
The indefatigable excursions that it
makes especially in the morning, often
to considerable distances around rs
cot, and to all points of the compass,
accustom it to great number of mag
petic and visual sensations whose va
rious characteristics it learns to distin-
guish according to the region where it
is and to the hour of the day. By whas
may be called its sense Of touch and by
its sight it registers, as it were, like az
delicate mechanism, impressions as
varied as they are complex, which, re-
sulting in the concerted action of the
organism, enable it to determine IN ::
given place, at a given moment, the oil.
rection in which the dovecot will be
found.
s'This power of discernlnent increases
with the accumulation of heredity of
what may be called local instinct.
This is why the carrier pigeon is not
satisfactory unless it has behind it an