Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1903-01-08
Sixth Sense Which Birds own.


duCeQ Gar NlClOlaS TO pIeulCI luNt
the progress of science would
eventually discount the tricks Of
legerdemain, and it seems probable
that the marvels of nature will do the
same for the fairy realm of magma
ton. Sea crabs with cold fire and
cells with electrOcution batteries are
stranger creatures than the COLLINS
Of Grandfather Anderson, and the
achievement Of Tamarlane are sur
passed by our American forest bees.
The clever dwarf could retrace his
steps trough the widest thickets OF
tanglewoods till the birds broke his
corner in white peas, but ants and
bees can dispense with landmarks,
actual experiments having demon,
strated their ability to find their
homes by short cuts across purposely
changed landscapes.
"A being equipped with a record
ing Office for wireless messages from
all points of the compass a German
zoologist describes a carrier pigeon.
and the faculty of Typographical
clairvoyance has indeed become more
mysterious by investigation. New ex-
periments, instead of calculating its
enigmas, have resulted only in ex-
tinguishing old-time theories.
The sixth sense" of migratory
birds was once supposed to have
been developed by yearly round trips,
repeated for an indefinite number of
generations, until the practice had
perfected the knack of flying due
south in fall and due north in spring
A Decline course in both directions
would thus bring the wanderers
back in sight Of familiar objects, and
the difficulties of the problem would
be reduced to the task of keeping d
parallel Of a meridian.
But the fact is that travelling birds
do not pledge themselves to any such
rules. If the season is mild they in.
dulge in wide detours, turning off
seward to rummage the drittwood OF
a beach or inland to explore the
tributaries of a large river valley, and
then resume cir journey as if moth.
ing had happened Captive birds
have been sent for hundreds of miles
out of their Decline route. after being
marked in a way to identify them in
the neighborhood of their resting
places, next spring, and a fair pro
portion generally turned up in time
marks and all. Some failed to return,
but that is a risk incurred by all
travellers. A good many of our wood
birds rear two broods a year, and il
all their young lived the respirable
atmosphere of our planet would al
last fail to hold their swarms. but
traps, gunpowder and sparrowhawks
combine to insure an abundance of
wing-room. About three out of five
winged emigrants perish, but the lack
of compass facilities has nothing to
do with their disappearance
Ants of a species that undertake
extensive foraging trips have been
turned loose on the other side of
rivers which none of their immediate
ancestors could be supposed to have
crossed before. Released miles be-
yond, in a country mat must have
been as unfamiliar to them as Trans
Caucasia would be to an American
back-WoOds boy, the little eXiles
struck out bravely in the direction OF
their arrows, and some of them are
perhaps stu wandering up and down
along the edge of the water Larrier
AS far as they found terra frma to
carry them they held their course
straight. New sights, new sounds,
new scents of an unfamiliar vegeta.
ton failed to confuse their guiding
instinct. What apparatus of their
tiny heads can have recorded these
wireless messages" from the haunts
Of their anxious relatives?
How does a bee contrive to steer
straight after its senses have been
ciouded by alcohol? For the trick of
our American bee hunters includes
the use of intoxicants, mingled with
bee-attracting treacle, The little
forage, IoaDed with a jag, as well as
with patent glucose. does find it hard
to travel on schedule time, and is apt
to alight and rub his eyes to study
out a club house excuse, but as long
as he keeps on the wing there is
nothing wrong with his direction.
The Marconi messages prevail
against schnapps and surfeits.
Mysterious instincts were generally
supposed to be a prerogative Of the
lower animals, whom nature had
somehow, to compensate for the lack
Of reason. But telepathy or topo-
graphical second sight undoubtedly
also guides the steps of several
species Of mammals-not all of them
quadrupeds
Professor Leisure, Of Brussels. not
long ago caused a lively controversy
by publishing his experience with a
pair Of American coons that could
not be separated by night and dis
lance. Their forcible divorces always
ended with a spontaneous reunion
4 trained hound. who could be relied
upon TO track and tree them without
hurting them. nearly always found
them together, though they had been
liberated on different sides Of an
Ar1anuas rao1Tu+air rav~1 r-boro