Page:Smithsonian Report (1898).djvu/573

Rh It has been objected that orientation from a distance or near at hand is always the same act, and that it is illogical, contrary to the established order of things, to see the same functions carried on by two distinct organs. But this objection is not well taken. It is quite frequent to see in nature the same function accomplished by very different organs.

The strawberry, for instance, is reproduced by means of the seeds formed by the foundation of the flower. It is also reproduced by means of runners that grow out from the plant, take root in their turn and abandon the fragile thread that holds them to the mother plant. Close observation will enable us to cite many examples of the same sort. The hypothesis that a special sense comes in to take the place of the five original senses, whose range is limited, has in it nothing illogical.

We will now study a number of interesting cases, seeking to deduce from them the mechanism of orientation from a distance.

First. During a hunt with greyhounds that took place in the forest of Orleans, a stag, not the animal hunted, was followed by some dogs; cornered in an angle of the forest he "went away;" the master of the hunt, seeing the mistake made, recalled his dogs and set them on the right track. But a poacher who had seen the stag leave the forest noted exactly the place where he passed out and lay in wait for him, feeling certain that the animal when he no longer thought himself threatened would return, by the next morning at the latest, and over exactly the same path by which he had made his exit. The result proved him right. The poacher had made use of the fact well known to the charcoal burners who live in the forest of Orleans. The stags and roebuck, finding almost everything they need for food in the forest, almost never leave it. When for any reason whatever they go out into the adjoining land they follow in return the same road they used in going.

The art of setting snares is founded on this observation. The snare prepared in the woods at a point presumably on the track of an animal, or even exactly at the spot where the animal has passed, does not necessarily entrap him. He wanders throughout the whole extent of his domain, often leaving one track to try new ones; while an animal which has ventured into strange territory will surely return shortly and pass at the same point at which he went out. If the snare be set at a point where his departure was observed he will surely be taken.

Second. The horse which passes twenty-two or twenty hours every day in the stable in semi obscurity, his nose against the wall, can not be endowed with much instinct. All voluntary action is forbidden him, since he can only act in obedience to his master. His instinct is, if not atrophied, at least exceedingly diminished.

The stable is a permanent center of attraction to the horse, who finds