COUNTRY LIFE
A Homing Marvel The most remarkable experiments ever carried out to test the homing instinct of an animal have had yet stranger and preciser results than were expected. Something has been already heard of these results. Now exacter details and more details given in the annual record of the Skokholm Bird Observatory accent the marvel. Even the trials made by Mr Beebe of the homing instinct of sea birds of the Galapagos Islands were surpassed. Skokholm is famous for its sheerwaters, a bird peculiarly associated with the sea. Their underground nests in Skokholm are legion. A number of these birds were caught up and taken to various places : to Ireland, to the Mersey, to Cape Finisterre and to several inland places. They succeeded in finding their way home, no matter where they were deposited. More than this, they flew home at a speed that must imply a high degree of direct- ness. Two examples stand out. Birds released at the Frensham Ponds in Surrey were back again at Skokholm, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, the very next day ; these birds must have travelled over two hundred miles overland, a thing altogether contrary to their habit. The second example is yet stranger. A sheerwater released at Venice was back at Skokholm fifteen days later. If it flew by a sea route it covered over three thousand miles. If it flew overland it did a thing altogether against its habit. The sheerwater is a bird not known in the Mediterranean. This homefinding genius utterly baffles all explanation. The latest rather fanciful ideas on the secret of migration cannot apply, for these birds travelled home whether they went North or South or East or West It is " a thing imagination boggles at."
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