Identifier: homingrelatedact00wats (find matches)
Title: Homing and related activities of birds
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Watson, John B. (John Broadus), 1878-1958 Lashley, Karl S. (Karl Spencer), 1890-1958
Subjects: Orientation Birds Terns Vision Archery
Publisher: Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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a smaller scale by a slightly similarmethod. We could rear the birds in a wire-covered yard attached to a cote;then, as was done by Hachet-Souplet with the birds living in the travelingcotes (an experiment which certainly ought to be confirmed), we could tetherindividual birds to the top of the cote by cords which would permit a viewonly of the neighborhood immediately surrounding the cote. These birds wouldnext be sent into a region which could not have stimulated their vision previ-ously. Again, if the birds effected a return to the neighborhood of the cote,they would resume their old habits. With these experiments upon homing, work upon the sensory equipment ofthe homing pigeon should be carried on. It is just possible that these animalspossess on certain parts of the body (eye-lids, ear covering, oral cavity, etc.)sensitive tactual and thermal mechanisms which may assist them in reactingto slight differences in pressure, temperature, and humidity of air columns. WATSON AND LASHLEY
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^•■- METHOD OF MARKING NEST AND BIRD FOR HOMING.Fig. 1. Noddy nest lagged. Four horizontal bars are painted in oil across the birds head.Fig. 2. Sooty nest tagged. Large daub o( oil paint is placed on the birds white neck. NOTES ON THE NESTING ACTIVITIES OF THE NODDYAND SOOTY TERNS. By K. S. Lashlet.ORIENTATION IN THE NEST LOCALITY. In the report of his extensive studies of the activities of the noddy andsooty terns* Watson raises the question of the method by which the birdsrecognize their nests and young and records the results of a few experimentsbearing upon the problem. The terns breed in great numbers upon Bird Key,an island in the Tortugas group somewhat less than 5 acres in area. Theirnests, of which there were more than 10,000 in 1908, are in may cases closelycrowded together, as many as 30 sooty nests being found in an area of 100square feet, and the nests and eggs are almost indistinguishable to the humanobserver. Indeed, the island suggests a city of 10,000 houses, all

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