HOW DO THEY KNOW?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 93, 15 May 1909, Page 3

HOW DO THEY KNOW?

WHERE ANIMALS BEAT .MAX.

Have von over watched a big llight of starling-? If so, yon will have noticed that, at :i given second, every single one of many hundreds of birds will make identically the same turn,

It i» not a question, of follow my leader. It isn't as if any ouc bird turned first and the others' followed its example. The movement is simultaneous, and no bird ever makes a mistake.

How do they do it? Is it an inaudib'c, invisible command from a leader? To Dc truthful, no one knows; probably no one ever will know. Bird- are not the only creatures to perform simultaneous evolutions. The writer has scon great shoais of poi'pois'es off the Florida coast lined out on eacii siil e of the ship, "dressed" as perfectly as a crack infantry regiment. At a given instant, each porpoise will make a simultaneous turn, and, moving in a semicircle, form up again behind t're ship. The two lines .cannot, of course, se c oo p another, for the ship is' between them; yet tlieir movements are as perfectly timed as if each wort following an electric signal, It has been suggested that the impulse which communicates the order to nianeouvrc is telepathic. It would seem as if il must be so. At any rate, the mere human can never hope to imitate such precision.

H may be humiliating to some Intellectual individuals, but there is no getting away from the fact that animals' have powers—call it a sixth sense, or anything you please—which are denied to man,

Take the problem of the migration of birds. How do they And their way across hundreds of miles of trackless ocean? .Some have said that (he young birds are escorted by their parents, and that they in turn lead their young, In certain cases—such, for instance, as that of the swallow, .when old and young migrate simultaneously the answer seems satisfactory. But not in all, Young cuckoos, for instance, which arc hatched in England arc not strong enough on th n wing to accompany the old birds. They do not. leave us till about a month after their parents have down. Yet, without any kind of guide, they find their way from this island to thp African continent. Here is a problem .which we cannot attempt to explain, unless we allow that birds have a sense denied to man.

Hpeaking of birds, how is it that those birds which nest bv rivers always seem lo lie endowed with a foreknowledge of Ihc weather for (he coming months? They are seldom, if ever, enusht ",v Hoods. The .swan, for instance. 5 " build's at just Millieicii height above ordinary water-mark to'escape freshets: and if

swans' nest* are furl he.- back than usual from ii,„ banks, y.iii mav safely expect a wet spring. Xearlv all bird* seem to know beforehand what the weather will be for the uyxl twenty-four hours. Man, with all his liiimmeiers and therinomelers. cannot match this knowledge. The green *.vnod pecker's erv is a sure harbinger of rain. The "tumbling" of rooks :.• an equally safe sign. On (he other hand, the Mrummiicr of snipe and the call of the -partridge indicate fine weather; and when you see wild geese Hy out to sea you may be certain no gale is near. < J'i-sj

It i- recorded bv trustworthy -witnesses that before the great earthquake at Ynlparaiso-qiiite two minutes before the lir,( tremor was fell-all (lie dogs i,i (he town began to howl It brought many people out of their beds to see what, was the matter, and Indirectly saved many lives.

Hill the subject is endless. ffow (l 0 unsrs ami cils. taken from home by rail And their way bade across miles of country, not one yard of which have hev e'er see,, ~„f („ ,,? Mffl no il. lii this, as In many other respects, he is inferior („ the so-called brute creation/fit Bits.