The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-02-03
THE H0MlNG INSTINCT.

THE HOMING INSTINCT.
Ability of Various Birds and Animals
TO Find Their Way Home.
The homing instinct develops in young
animals almost as early as the desire for
food. In the wild state it is a necessity,
since without it the young could never
keen in touch with herd or pack. Even
after centuries of domestication 1T is still
acute. Witness this tale of little pigs
They were under month old when their
owner decided to move. He wanted TO
fatten and kill their mothers, so offered
the lot of forty at bargain price. a
neighbor five miles away bought tIe
pigs. put them in a big box, hoisted the
box on a wagon. and hauled II nome.
There the pigs were put in a close pen,
fed on milk and mush for two weeks.
then allowed to run in a small lot adja-
cent to the pen Three mornings later
every one was missing. small mole
carefully rooted under the gate was the
sole explanation of their disappearance
Their buver searched high ana low for
them. sending even to adjacent farms,
but could not find them. That after
neon the original owner sent word ne
ing SIGNALLING at his gate when he aWoke.
The buyer going to reclaim the strays.
found the missing fortieth pig lying eX-
hausted by the roadside, but still struS-
Cling to follow the trail of it's mates
Upon the same middle Tennessee plan
tation four-year-old mare was bought
from an Ohio drove. The drove mad
been brought down on stock cars to the
county town. seven miles away. The
new surroundings, so after week or
two she was allowed to pasture with
other stock For a day she was happy,
grazing and froicking with the rest
Toward noon of the second day watcher
saw her suddenly fling up her head,
cock one ear forward. one BACK as as
though listening intently to Tar call.
then start in q swinging gallop for the
pasture fence, clear it with one flying
leap, across the field of young corn, take
the boundary fence, a much sitter one,
and go away due North. Nothing more
was seen or heard of her for three
months Then by singular chance she
more than half way across the state
of Kentucky. She had swum con-
siderable river to get SO far, and had
been taken UP, through breaking INTO
a pasture to Craze. She was going home
straight as the crow flies, making no
account whateveS Of the bends ana
turns in the route by which she had been
fetched.
Among fowls, domestic turkeys are the
most persistent homers. This same plan
tation's mistress found that out IN way
at once odd and provoking. She raised a
brood Of fourteen, which turned out 10
contain thirteen gobbers. TEey were line,
Justly bronze-brown fellows. although this
was in the year when bronze turkeys, so
- t,rn "
seven out Of thirteen to as many neigh
bors. to put at the head of their breeding
tlocks AS a consequence, almost every
day for six weeks she had to go out and
help to separate her own turkeys from
some othe.. flock. Each of the gift COB
bIers came back home. not once but many
times, with his harem at his heels.
Cats are proverbial homers. Southern
negroes have many entertaining supersti-
tions connected with their transfer IN
moving they say it is the worst luck in
the world to take along a cat. It is also
very bad luck 70 give away a cat. unless
its feet are creased. and allowed to make
marks on the threshold It goes over. They
say, further. the homing propensity can
ba destroyed by putting butter on&pusSy,s
feet before they touch anything In her
new home. Black walnuts. which II IS
nearly as bad luck to move as a cat.
by cracking them carefully. and either:
tieing a necklace of shells on the cat, or.
putting them upon her feet for boots@sIt
is lucky to have the gift Of a cat, and
luckiera still to have one come to you of
Z its own motion. A gift-cat to be taken
home in a bag securely tied, SO none OF
tho luck will escape.
6 Notwithstanding this was done in the
case of tortoise shell tabby: she came
home over distance Of fifteen miles.
She took all summer to do it IN. The
road home led through pleasant woods.
and was never very far from a clear
creek At various times between June.
when she vanished from her new home.
and November. when She reappeared at
!: her old one tabby, was seen Suffering
through the woods with bird in her
mouth, or summing herself luxuriouAly
high in some afe5stree-crotch. The first
nipping frost brought her to the familiar
door. meowing, and looking UP at her
old master as If she had never left it,.
New Z OrkF Sun *