Page:Auk Volume 37-1920.djvu/125

 1920 J Beck, The Occult Senses in Birds. 55 and Smith commoner than calendula in Kerr Co. Attwater calls it a common migrant at San Antonio. 68. Regulus c. calendula. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. — Common, ex- cept in the arid country around Camp Stanley where it was a surprise to see it at all. 69. Polioptila c. caerulea. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. — One bird noted January 1 at Hot Wells, south of San Antonio. 70. Hylocichla guttata subsp.? Hermit Thrush. — Rather com- mon, except at Camp Stanley where it was absent. 71. Planesticus m. migratorius. Robin. Rather uncommon, except at Medina Dam, where it was abundant in the juniper and bayberry. 72. Sialia s. sialis. Bluebird. — Not common except at Medina Dam. 73. Sialia currucoides. Mountain Bluebird. — A species whose appearance in this region was probably due to cold weather. Three birds seen December 17, and a male with sialis December 27, both at Camp Stanley. Lacey recorded it in only three winters in twenty-nine years around Kerrville considerably farther north and west. It is apparently previously unrecorded near San Antonio. Amer. Museum Nat. Hist., N. Y. THE OCCULT SENSES IN BIRDS. BY HERBERT H. BECK. That animals below man, in the accepted biological line, have retained in efficient form much that has been greatly reduced or nearly lost in the process of developing Nature's master product — the human mind — is a fact of common knowledge. The senses of sight, smell and hearing in man are almost rudimentary when compared with the same senses as developed in the hawk, the setter dog, and the fox. It is not so generally recognized, though none the less perhaps a fact, that certain senses widely or selectively a part of animal life, are absolutely gone in man. So thoroughly are these senses atro- phied or lacking in the human mind that man with all his highly