apparently no memory, no interest attracted him. If strong on the wing, he covered 400 or 500 kilometers, perhaps more, in tbe wrong direction—perceiving his mistake he knew, by some mysterious instinct, how to retrace his path and find again the point of his departure, the spot of his release, which he had hardly noticed in the morning. The combined work of the five senses can not explain such a return.
A lost dog behaves in exactly the same way. When, having been brought by rail to a hunting ground entirely unknown to him, and, having lost his way, he returns to the place where he last saw his master, and stations himself there to wait until someone comes to find him; or, even further retracing his way, he will follow back again the way by which he was brought and return to his home.
Let us cite one of a number of instances of this sort which have been reported to us by a trustworthy witness.
A young dog belonging to Mr. D, a proprietor at Pont-Audemer, was carried to the station at Beaumont-le-Roger, and from there to a hunting ground situated between Goupillières and Fumechon. He disappeared during the hunt and in the evening returned to Pont-Audemer. Since he was by chance observed by certain railroad employees and gate keepers, who saw him pass, it has been possible to trace the road which he took. The dog returned first to the station at Beaumont-le-Roger, and then walked along the railroad to Pont-Audemer, passing Serquigny. To reach the station he had to walk away from home; he then walked along a road which made a considerable detour, several times crossing the Rille, while from Fumechon he could have reached Pont-Audemer directly by a much shorter route.[1]
The migrations of birds have been the subject of observations too well known for us to relate them. We will limit ourselves to explaining, with the aid of our theory, facts which have long been known.
The migratory bird is subject, like those of its kind that remain always in the same region, to the law of the domain. Only it has two domains, a summer and a winter one. It has been ascertained that the same swallows come every year to occupy the same nest, and the same region. The same observation has been made upon storks and upon many other birds.
When the time for departure is come, birds of the same species, inhabiting the same region, come together for the journey. Those that have already made the voyage take the lead and retrace the path by which they came. The younger birds, born since the last journey, con- fine themselves to following their elders, and when, some months later, it becomes time to return, these are able in their turn to follow in a reverse direction the journey previously made.
When the migratory bird, born in our country, who has never made
- ↑ When, on market day, peasants lose the dog which they have brought with them to the city, to seek him they go to the different places where their wagon has stopped and always find him again.
