The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-04-23
Birds, Beasts and Fishes Move in
Seemingly Organized Masses
Thru a Subconscious Under
standing. Q
Century Magazine.

~t Century Magazine.
Certain things in animal life lead
me to suspect that animals have some
means of communication with one an
other, especially the gregarious ami
mails, that Is quite independent Of
an interchange or blending OF sub
conscious states and may be analo-
gous to telepathy among human be-
tngs. Observe what a unit q flock of
birds becomes when performing their
evolutions in the air. They are not
many, but one, turning and flashing
In the sun with unity and pre-
cision that it would be hard to ini-
tate. One may see a flock of shore
birds that behave as one body; now
they turn to the sun a sheet of silver;
then, as their dark backs are pre-
scented to the beholder, they almost
disappear against the shore or the
clouds. It would seem as If they all
shared in a communal mind or spirit,
and that what one felt they all felt at
the same instant.
In Jamaica many times saw large
schools Of mu1lets fretting and break
ing the surface of the water with
what seemed to be the tips Of their
tails, a large area would be agitaated
and rippled by the backs or tails Of a
host Of fishes. Then suddenly, while
you looked, there would be one splash
and every fish would dive. It was a
multitude, again, acting as one body.
Hundreds, thousands Of tails slapped
the water at the, same instant and
were gone.
When the passenger pigeons were
numbered by millions, the enormous
clans used to migrate from one part
of the continent to another. I saw
the last flight of them up the Hudson
river valley in the spring Of 1875. All
day they streamed across the sky.
One purpose seemed to animate every
flock and every bird. It was as If all
had orders to move to the same point.
The pigeons came only when there
did they know we had had q beech
nut year? It is true that a few stray
Cling bands were usually seen some
days in advance Of the blue myriads;
were these the scouts, and did they
return with the news of the beech
nuts? If SO, how did they communi-
cate the intelligence and set the whole
mighty army in motion? The migra-
lions among the four-footed animals
part Of the country-among the rats,
the gray squirrels, the reindeer Of the
north-seem to be OF a similar char
acter. How does every individual come
to share in the common purpose? An
army Of men attempting to move
without leaders and without a written
or spoken language becomes a dis
organized mob. Not so the animals.
There seems to be a community OF
mind among them In a sense that
there is not among men. The press
ure Of a great danger seems to develop
in degree this community Of mind
and feeling among men. Under strong
excitement we revert more or less to
the animal state, and are ruled by
instinct. 1t may be well that telepa-
thy-the power to project ones men
press a friend at distances a
power which we have carried over
from our remote animal ancestors.
However this may be, 1t is certain that
the sensitiveness of birds and quad
rupeds to the condition Of one another,
their sense Of common danger, OF
food supplies, OF the direction OF home
under all circumstances, point to the
possession of power which Is only
rudimentary In us.
Some observers explain these things
on the theory that the focks OF birds
have leaders, and that their surpris-
| ing evoluttons are guided by calls or
| signals from these leaders, too quick
or too fine for our eyes or ears te
catch. suppose they would explain
the movements of the schools Of fish
and the simultaneous movements OF
a large number of wild animals on the
same theory. cannot accept this
explanation. It is harder for me to
believe that q flock OF birds has code
Of calls or signals for all Its evolu-
| tions-now right, now left, now mount
now swoopw which each individual
| understands on the instant, or that
the hosts Of the Wild pigeons had their
captains and signals, than to believe
that out of the foeking instinct there