Evening star., 1924-03-23
The Hon1ing Instinct.

livery evening at the rush hour
H thousands and thousands OF per
sons in big cities stream out OF the.'
offices and workshops and sort them
selves into their separate grooves I"
their homes. A visitor from anothcl
and less advanced planet might woF-
der how they do it. 1t is the sam
with nature. Every day and nigh
millions OF creatures find their W..
over long distances with unerrir-
accuracy.
With natures creatures thing
vary. Trailing out from an ant =
nest are many tiny ant tracks branch-
ing out into tributaries. Along the
tracks thousands Of ants crawl d&i
70 and fro Some Of the ants traNe'
into the forests distances equai r.
comparison TO q mans twenty-H =
walk. They ind their way entir@lE
by the sense of smell
Caterpillars, as rule, rely upo
light and gravitaGon. \ caterpiIsE
fallen from a tree detects the pre-
ence OF the trunk by its shadow an
attraction. This is not merely :"
good a guide as the ants sense ..
smell; for if another tree happens 7"
be growing opposite, unsuitable /"
feed upon, the caterpillar will crawl
to that tree and have all its journtE
for nothing.
But some caterpillarS are much
cIeverer than this. The caterpillar o.
the purple emperor butterfly" choose.
IN its infancy specially selected
leaves to sleep upon. At dusk and
dawn it crawls away over an appar-
entity trackless waste of branches 10
some favorite spot to have supper
and breakfast When the meals arr
finished it invaria bly, finds its wa
back home. because it has left thin
trail of silk along the branches. This
silk forms a kind of guiding string
But when one considers the case
of the bee one must admit the bom
ing faculty is much less simple,
since bees can neither leave tracks
Of scent nor a web. How is it that
bee can ny all over town and yet in
variably come home to the hive in
the evening? There can be little
doubt so intelligent an insect as this
has a long memory and a keen eye
for landmarks. This is testified TO
by the fact that all bees fly by day.
whereas such creatures as moths, OF
no fixed home or occupation, fly in
the darkness. A bee would be lost
at midnight, because it could not rec
ognize its surroundings.
The same method is pursued by
birds. although naturalists differ
widely on the subject. There is little
reason to doubt that q migrating bird
knows the difference between north
and south, SO that when the nightjar
for instance, is leaving Africa for
England it begins its horneward jour
ney by going due north. Now, il
does not follow that any nightjar
ever Intentionally flew straight from
Africa to England. He may easily
make a mistake and find himself in
France. But France, being just as
suited to his purposes, the matter
may be settled right there and be
may drop down in the woods near
Paris.
In short, the homing instinct in
birds of the migratory sort consists
of their wonderful ability to detect
changes in climate and the direction
of the compass, for their home" may
cover a wide area The rest is all
accomplished by the observations Of
landmarks.
Most animals, such as the fox, the
wolf and the rabbit, find tksss way
back to their homes by a combination
of sight, memory and smell. There
are extraordinary cases OF cats, dogs
and pigeons travelling over vast d.
tances where it seems impossible
for either sight or scent to be Of
much assistance. For instance, q
terrier sent to a new home in Ohio
returned to it's old master, in Penn
syivania, over a distance Of nearly
200 miles. In all cases like these
memory and sight ore Of hardly any
use except in the Immediate neigh
borhood of home" OF what service
can smell be when the track they
traverse is new and strange?
1t is the same with homing pigeons
We are, therefore, forced to conclude
that some animals possess the sense
of direction so highly developed that
no matter how or where they are
taken they are able to retrace their
steps az IL they had left trails like
*hA siIlk trail Of the -caserpilta<s