Bird-Lore
A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE
DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS
Official Organ of the Audubon Societies
| Vol. II | July—August, 1900 | No. 4 |
The Orientation of Birds[1]
BY CAPTAIN GABRIEL REYNAUD. French Army
Translated from the French by Mrs. Clara J. Coxe
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THE question of the orientation of animals has given rise to many controversies, and the ideas expressed on this subject may be summed up in two theories. Some, with Spaulding, Russell, Wallace, and Croom Robertson, think that the faculty of orientation should be attributed to a particular acuteness of the live senses inherent in animals, they having ideas which only reach us through the medium of instruments of precision. Others consider that orientation brings into play a sixth sense, independent of the first five. Flaurens, Romanes, Henry Lordes, Goltz, Pfiiiger, Mach, Crum Brown, and Brand admit that this sense exists and has its seat in the semi-circular tubes of the ear.
These two opposed theories are each supported by unquestionable facts, apparently giving reason for the two schools. Now, there cannot be contradiction regarding facts.
If one unique law governs all the acts of orientation, these acts must all occur in the same way. If, when placed in different conditions, the animal has recourse to different methods of orientation, it indicates that the law which it obeys is no law.
We have bent all our attention to the observation of the facts. We have verified that our predecessors are not in harmony with each other, because the observations which had served them as a point of
- ↑ At the time this paper was written for Bird-Lore, Captain Reynaud was in charge of the Homing Pigeon Service of the French Army. He subsequently was called on to establish a ' Pigeon Post ' for the Compagnie Generale Tra:nsatlantique, and in the interests of this company has twice visited this country. His initial experiments in this connection are mentioned in this article. Later, we hope to receive from him a detailed account of his important attempts to increase the usefulness of the Homing Pigeon through careful training and selection. — Ed.
