Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-02
Homing Instinct.

There is an interesting story in the
human employment of animal lnstlncI.
Men have given animals JOBS Wnen
thew could. The human demand eX-
ploits the animal supply. The morse:
camel and elephant become beasts OF
burden. AS horsepower gives way 10
brainpower. human invention super
sedes animal instinct. But nature con-
tinues to do some things better than the
mind of man.
A land of milk and honey is still de-
PENDENT on cows and bees, though syn
thetic substitutes may be invented. US
ing dogs or falcons for hunting, or pigs
for finding truffies. Is yet another eK-
ploitation of a special animal instinct.
Yet of all the animal instincts mar
messed to human ends the flight OF the
carrier pigeon-now replaced by the an
mails most engaging because OF It's
psychological setting. 1t gives one re-
spect for the bird brain, justitles the
expression "a wise bird" and the use
of the owl as an emblem of wisdom.
That persistent sense of home has
far-reaching consequence. 1t may be
associated with the migratory habit
another remarkable bird instinct
though it operates wherever birds Scour
a vast area in the search for food.
That a stork should have two homes,
ney in Holland and a Winter home Just
as much its own in North Africa. and
know when and how to make the double
Journey each year, Is an intelligent
showing. In the service of all these
ways of nature there has developed a
strong hon1ing instinct, which man puts
to service as the first messages by air.
Home comes to mean mating nest
as we'll as a shelter. A lair is the same.
FT7l,n rcY4ee bank and che
longs" through persistence of the lair
habit from the jungle. The tendency
to prowl and roam and attachment to
q local habitation enter into the homing
instinct.
In man the homing instinct like every
other set of acquired habits built upon
an instructive basis, rises in the scale
of complication. The instructive factor
remains imbedded as the core of the
behavior, but the $50 called) homing
instinct in man isn't a carrier-pigeon,
built-in habit, but something acquired.
1t grows with the growth of home ties
and their many connections. Home is
primarily shelter, and shelter en-
tiers into the protective mechaniSmS OF
life.
If we we're turtles, we should carry
our shelters on our backs COR as our
backs and retire within the walled
CdSIlP OIL our SIltllS, lIIC NdNS HldhCc
the shelter Of the cave-man period of
human life. Open only at the 'front.' 1t
afforded protection on all other sides.
Retaining the same tendency. We take
the corner seat when we can get it and
shove our beds into corners, at least
against one wall. and would feel I'M
sheltered in bed set in the middle OF
the room.
But in human behavior the homing
instinct is largely psychological. Though
ever so humble, there's no place like
home. We cultivate the honey feeling;
we extend hospitality by the invitation
TO make yourself at home. When first
away from home we develop acute at
tacks of inconsistencies. We dislike to be
strangers in a strange world We can't
work under unfamiliar surroundings
can't sleep so we'll in strange bed.
A psychological homing instinct as a
means of finding our way home We to-