The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-21
THE HoMrNG INSTINCT.
Stories of Pigs. Horses, Cats and Do
nestle Turkeys.


nestle Turkeys.
Washington, Jan. 19.-The homing in
stinct 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 keep in touch
with herd or pack. Even after centuries
of domestication it is still acute. Witness
this tale of little pigs. They were under
month old when their owner decided to
move. He wanted to fat and kill their
mothers, so offered, the lot of forty at a
bargain price.s neighbor five miles away
bought the pigs, put them in big box
hoisted the box on a wagon and hauled
it home. There the pigs were put in
close pen, fed with milk and mush for
two weeks, then given the range of
small lot adjacent to the pen. Three morn
ings later every one was missing. A smau
whole carefully rooted under the gate was
the sole explanation of their disappear
ance. Their buyer searched high and low
for them, sending even to adjacent farms,
but could not find them. That afternoon
the original owner sent word he had found
thlrty-nine of the forty standing squeal-
ing at his gate when he awoke. The buy.
err going to reclaim the strays, found the
missing forteth pig lying exhausted by
the roadside but still struggling to writhe
along on the trail of its mates
Upon the same Middle Tennessee plan
tation 4-year-old mare was bought from
an Ohio drove. The drove had bees
brought dowe on stock cars to the county
town, seven miles away. The mare seem
ed PERFECTLY content in her new surround
ings, so after week or two she was AZ
lowed TO pasture with other stock. For
day she was happy, grazing and frolickinS
with the rest Toward noon of the second
4 x1rat cb.a AsFN1xr nm
her head, cock one ear forward, one back,
as though listening intently to far off
call, then start in a swinging gallop
for the pasture fence, clear it with one
flying leap, cross a field of young
corn, take the boundary fence, much
sitter one, and go away due north.
Nothing more was seen or heard of her
for three months Then by a singular
chance she was discovered impounded as
an estray, more than half way across the
state of Kentucky She had swan 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
count whatever of the bends and turns
in the route by which she had been fetch
ed.
Among fowls, domestic turkeys are the
most persistent homers. This same plan
tation's mistress found that out in a way
at once odd and provoking. She raised a
brood of fourteen, which turned out to
contain thirteen gobbers. They were fine
lusty bronze-brown fellows, although this
was in the year when bronze turkeys, so
called, were unknown. She gave away
seven out of the thirteen TO as many
neighbors to put at the head of their
breeding flocks. As a consequence almost
every day for six weeks she had to go
out and help to separate her own turkeys
from some other flock. Each of the gift
gobblers 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 10 take along the cat. II is
also very bad luck 10 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 pro-
pensity can be destroyed by putting but
ter on pussy's feet before they touch any
thing in her new home Black wanuts,
which ii is nearly as bad luck to move as
cats, may be made to serve as ill-luck an
tidotes by cracking them carefully, and
either tying a necklace of shells on the
cat or putting them upon her feet for
boots. II is lucky to have the gift of
cat, and luckier still to have one come
to you of its motion. A gift-cat ought to
be taken home in a bag securely tied so
none of the luck will escape.
Notwithstanding this was done In the
case of a tortoise shell tabby she came
nome over a distance of fifteen miles She
took all summer to do ii in. The road
home led through pleasant woods, and
was never very far from a clear cpeek
At various times between June, when she
vanished from her new home, and No
vember, when she reappeared at her old
one, tabby was seen skittering through
the woods with bird in her mouth, or
summing herself luxuriously high in some
safe tree-crotch. The first nipping frost
brought her to the familiar door. meow
ing, and looking up at her old master
quite as though sheNhad never left it.