The Beauties of Nature, and the Wonders of the World We Live InLubbock, John, Sir
Philosophy
The Beauties of Nature, and the Wonders of the World We Live In
Lubbock, John, Sir
Astronomy; Natural history; Physical geography
In addition to the capacity for receiving and perceiving, some animals
have the faculty of emitting light. In our country the glow-worm is the
most familiar case, though some other insects and worms have, at any
rate under certain conditions, the same power, and it is possible that
many others are really luminous, though with light which is invisible to
us. In warmer climates the Fire-fly, Lanthorn-fly, and many other
insects, shine with much greater brilliance, and in these cases the
glow seems to be a real love-light, like the lamp of Hero.
Many small marine animals, Medusae, Crustacea, Worms, etc., are also
brilliantly luminous at night. Deep-sea animals are endowed also in many
cases with special luminous organs, to which I shall refer again.
SENSE OF DIRECTION
It has been supposed that animals possess also what has been called a
Sense of Direction. Many interesting cases are on record of animals
finding their way home after being taken a considerable distance. To
account for this fact it has been suggested that animals possess a sense
with which we are not endowed, or of which, at any rate, we possess only
a trace. The homing instinct of the pigeon has also been ascribed to the
same faculty. My brother Alfred, however, who has paid much attention to
pigeons, informs me that they are never taken any great distance at
once; but if they are intended to take a long flight, they are trained
to do so by stages.
Darwin suggested that it would be interesting to test the case by taking
animals in a close box, and then whirling them round rapidly before
letting them out. This is in fact done with cats in some parts of
France, when the family migrates, and is considered the only way of
preventing the cat from returning to the old home. Fabre has tried the
same thing with some wild Bees (Chalicodoma). He took some, marked them
on the back with a spot of white, and put them into a bag. He then
carried them a quarter of a mile, stopping at a point where an old cross
stands by the wayside, and whirled the bag rapidly round his head. While
he was doing so a good woman came by, who seemed not a little surprised
to find the Professor solemnly whirling a black bag round his head in
front of the cross; and, he fears, suspected him of Satanic practices.
He then carried his Bees a mile and a half in the opposite direction and
let them go. Three out of ten found their way home. He tried the same
experiment several times, in one case taking them a little over two
miles. On an average about a third of the Bees found their way home. "La
demonstration," says Fabre, "est suffisante. Ni les mouvements
enchevetres d'une rotation comme je l'ai decrite; ni l'obstacle de
collines a franchir et de bois a traverser; ni les embuches d'une voie
qui s'avance, retrograde, et revient par un ample circuit, ne peuvent
troubler les Chalicodomes depayses et les empecher de revenir au nid."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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