Papers from the Tortugas Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (V 2..No.103 (1908))

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ...as was done by Hachet-Souplet with the birds living in the traveling cotes (an experiment which certainly ought to be confirmed), we could tether individual birds to the top of the cote by cords which would permit a view only of the neighborhood immediately surrounding the elite. These birds would next be sent into a region which could not have stimulated their vision previously. 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 of the homing pigeon should be carried on. It is just possible that these animals possess on certain parts of the body (eye-lids, ear covering, oral cavity, etc.) sensitive tactual and thermal mechanisms which may assist them in reacting to slight differences in pressure, temperature, and humidity of air columns. Fig. I. Noddy nest tagged. Four horizontal bars are painted in oil across the bird's head. Fig. Z. Sooty nest tagged. Large daub of oil paint is paced on the bird's white neck. NOTES ON THE NFBTING ACTIVITIES OF THE NODDY AND SOOTY TERNS. BY K. S. Lssunsr. ORIENTATION IN THE NEST LOCALITY. In the report of his extensive studies of the activities of the noddy and sooty terns Watson raises the question of the method by which the birds recognize their nests and young and records the results of a few experiments bearing 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. Their nests, of which there were more than 10,0()0 in 1908, are in may cases closely crowded together, as many as 30 sooty nests being found in an area of 100 square feet, and the nests and eggs are almost indistinguishable to the human...