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Dr. Quine, su"ounded by laboratory parapher­ nalia, at Cornell.

I OJIN);f,f t•ua:o 1.01 I'

One ofthe Cornell pigeon lofts, showing the homers crowding on the land­ ing board.

Pigeon in infrasound testing chamber with door open.

14 AVIARY Can Pigeons "Hear" WEST

Their Way Home? No. AW-36 Diameter 11'" by Tanner S. Chrisler and Bag Depth 16"' Handle 36'" Douglas B. Quine No. AW-18 Diameter 11 •• Bag Depth 16"' Handle 18'" No. AW-12 Julius Caesar used Homing Pigeons to strains of Racing Homers in America, 8"' Keeton's team learned that these birds 11"' carry messages from the remote corners of 12"' Europe to home, in Rome. That was two primarily use the sun to navigate. They thousand years ago. Ever since that time, have some ~ind of uncanny internal thoughtful people have wondered at these timeclock that tells them where the sun amazing birds, and in the present century, should be in the sky at any moment in the this wonder has manifested itself in some day at home. When they are released at a honest scientific study, trying to learn just place where the sun is not where it should how they do it. What "super-human be, they seem to know how to relate this to Our nets feature 100% nylon netting. hardwood powers" do the pigeons possess that enable where the sun would be at home, compare handles, and spring steel them to take off in unfamiliar territory, the two, and head toward home. hoops. make a few circles, and fly home with So much for ideal conditions, on a clear 3018 LA PLATA AVENUE remarkable speed? day with sunlight. Gradually, the Cornell HACIENDA HEIGHTS. CA 91745 Scientists in Germany, England, Italy, people stripped away one visual cue after Switzerland and the United States were another. What happens on overcast days? (213) 330-8700 probing at this question. Then in 1967, Dr. What happens at night? (The researchers William T. Keeton in the Avian Orienta­ did train enough pigeons to home at night tion Research Project, at Cornell Univer­ to complete that experiment.) What hap­ sity, Ithaca, New York, turned his atten­ pens when the pigeons are wearing foggy Wickett & Sons, contact lenses, that obscure any image tion to the question. For many years Cor­ ~ nell had the reputation of having one of beyond a few yards? They still come Exotic Birds the world's leading centers of research in home. How? The pigeons can discern the Rt. 1 Box 24 animal behavior - everything from polarity of light in the sky and probably honeybees to monkeys. Keeton was a still tell where the sun is, despite the over­ ! Jefferson, OR "natural" - not only because of his cast. Perhaps they can tie this with an abili­ 97352 boyhood interest as a pigeon fancier, but ty to perceive light in the ultraviolet range - because of his broad, multidisciplinary and spot the position of the sun - through Wholesale Only background in many areas of science, the clouds. besides biology. In addition to his for­ Later research showed that the pigeons Parrots Macaws midable reputation as one of the most are extremely sensitive to barometric popular professors at Cornell and his pressure, extraterrestrial gravity (pull of Conures Finches recognition in the scientific world, Keeton the moon), and the magnetic north pole on had the ability to get the funds he needed to earth. Still, it seemed that the explanation do the work at hand. This was vital to sus­ of the pigeon's homing ability was in­ Cockatoos tain a program on pigeons that would take complete. After each discovery, a many years to show some results. thorough attempt was made to strip-away Cockatiels As most readers already know, birds are the birds' ability to utilize the previously basically visual (eye-brained) animals. explored senses, and a significant number Parakeets They use their eyes to find food, to detect could still find home, almost as though danger, and to receive certain mating they were without any handicap. They Tame Birds stimuli. So the research under Keeton's must have some other senses. A laboratory direction started by exploring how the in Italy had run some convincing ex­ Sexed Pairs pigeons use their eyes to find the signals for periments that lead to the conclusion that orientation and navigation. The first ten pigeons use their sense of smell to find Call or write for years of his project were involved mostly home. But, try as they may, the Cornell current prices with visual stimuli, but a few other researchers could not replicate these ex­ "powers" entered the picture along periments. This may have been due to the the way. difference in climate or the difference in (503)327-2261 Using pigeons from the established the birds used, but Cornell finally dropped 15 its olfactory explorations on homing In tests to demonstrate the pigeons' pigeons. This left the sense of hearing, and ability to sense a change in pitch, Quine !¥'~ !¥'me !¥'eaduned they rolled up their sleeves. Are you ready? found that - between 1 Hz and 10 Hz - proudly presents To understand hearing, it is helpful to the pigeons could discriminate between Topper's Bird Feed know a little about sound. The easiest way very slight differences in pitch, a small (average protein 17%) This seed is coated with all vitamins, to think of sound is like the waves that are fraction of a Hertz apart. Remarkable! minerals & amino acids recommended formed when you drop a rock in a pond. A This was not just a breakthrough in pigeon by most prominent veterinarians. big rock makes a high wave with a long research. It was a breakthrough with any Diamond Doves: silver & normal Cockatlels on order distance between the top of one wave and kind of animal. Pigeons can hear INFRA­ FOR INFORMATION: the top of the next. A small rock makes a SOUND - a whole "new" spectrum - far Write Box 1486, below the threshold of human hearing. Canoga Park, CA 91304 small wave with less distance between the or call (213) 340-6318 top of one wave and the next. In sound we And they can not only hear down there, call the height of the wave amplitude (or but they can detect very slight differences loudness). The length between one peak in pitch down there. This is fantastic! and the next is called wavelength. This is To understand how the pigeons may use used also to describe the rate of speed that this ability to find their way home, .let us the waves hit the shore, and it is called fre­ consider for a moment the sound of a train quency (or pitch). In sound pitch is whistle. If you are outdoors and a train measured in cycles per second (waves per whistle blows (say 260 Hz, or a wavelength second). In recent years, cycles per second of 4 feet), you can not only hear it, but you PARROTS: has been renamed Hertz (Hz) in honor of can tell what direction it is coming from. Their Care & Breeding the German physicist (not the car rental Even though this soundwave is rather by Rosemary Low company). So much for the technical long, it hits one ear in a slightly different

This is the most comprehensive coverage of the jargon. way than it hits the other ear. Your brain parrot family in captivity. This book deals very Most people can hear low-pitched interprets this difference and tells you thoroughly with all aspec~s of patrot keeping and sounds from about 20 to 30 Hz up to high­ which direction the whistle came from. includes true experiences of many breeders throughout the world. 670 pages, 90 full color pitched sounds of about 12,QOO Hz, However, if you hear a very distant photos and 20 b/w illustrations. Regular price: depending on age and other factors. thunderstorm, you may not be able to tell $55.00 However, at the extreme ends of this spec­ where the sound is coming from. This is THIS MONTH'S SPECIAL trum, the sounds must be rather loud to be because the air has filtered out all but the $ 5 I. 50 Postpaid audible. (For example, the fundamental very lowest pitches. These sounds have Send $1.00 (refundable) for our latest catalog. pitches from a piano range from about 28 such long waves that there is no DEALERS WANTED Hz to 4186 Hz.) But what about pigeons' measurable difference between the way Request wholesale price list & catalog on your letterhead. hearing? Earlier tests had shown that the waves strike one ear and the way they pigeons were about as sensitive as humans strike the other. Sounds of such low pitch Avian Publications 310 Maria Drive, Dept. WB between 200 Hz and 10,000 Hz. Nobody are non-directional to humans, because we Wausau, WI 54401 had investigated the pigeons' ability to can not tell the direction of their source. (715) 845-5101 hear low-pitched sounds - really low­ But we have reasons to believe than hom­ pitched sounds, below the range of human ing pigeons can - not when they are stan­ hearing, which are know as "INFRA­ ding still, but - when they are released to SOUNDS". Dr. Melvin Kreithen and fly home. As you know, they do not usual­ Marilyn Yodlowski (an undergraduate ly take off for home right away; they fly student) tried the pigeons more than an oc­ out in a wide circle, which they may repeat tave below the range of human hearing - several times, before setting their course. at 10 Hz. The pigeons could hear it - not For ages people have watched this with high sensitivity - but with much maneuver and thought to themselves, greater ability than humans. They went "The pigeons are getting their bearings." down another octave to 5 Hz. Again the We ask, "What bearings? How?" Perhaps pigeons responded. This was a most im­ they are LISTENING while they fly pressive discovery - especially, as a part around. They may be detecting infra­ of an undergraduate project. sounds which have traveled tremendous After this, Douglas Quine (a graduate distances, because of their very long student of Keeton) began a detailed study wavelengths. What infrasounds? From 4£549-1 BT. .A.UGUST:INE RD. JACKSONVILLE. FL.A.. 3aao7 of the homing pigeons' hearing ability at where? TELEPHONE (904) 731-4482 extremely low frequencies. He went down Let's take some educated guesses about to 2.5 Hz - even to 1 Hz - and he found what the origins of these infrasounds SOUTHEAST DISTRIBUTOR that the pigeons could not only hear these might be. Maybe ocean waves hitting the for sounds, but they were more than 200 times shore, 200 miles away. Maybe thunder in Kaytee Bird Feed more sensitive in this range than humans. an electrical storm, 500 miles away. Sluis Bird Products Quine and Kreithen went to 0.5 Hz (one Maybe the Rocky Mountains grunting, Kellogg's Bird Foods cycle every two seconds). Quine eventually 2,000 miles away. All of these natural and other products went down to 0.05 Hz (one cycle every forces are known to science as generators twenty seconds), and the pigeons could of enormous long wavelength energy, that Call or write for the dealer in your area. still hear it! It is difficult for humans to can be detected by delicate instruments. We will ship anywhere. believe. For example, a volcano in the South 16 Pacific (Krakatoa), generating enormous the pitch seems higher. As the distance bet­ vibrations in the infrasound range, was ween the source and the listener increases, detected in America by an infrasound the length of the waves is "expanded", and microphone (that's what a seismograph the pitch seems lower. is). It is quite possible that every time the Now, suppose you were a pigeon, flying Concorde (a supersonic jet transport) in a circle, and the train was outside the cir - \j'lto p,UY. SELL. TRADE BiRDs leaves Kennedy Airport on Long Island cle standing still. You'd get the same Dop­ and breaks through the sound barrier - pler effect. When you were flying toward \j'l\'\\\E 10 us FOR THE LA TEsr maybe 400 miles from Cornell - the the whistle, the pitch would sound higher. When you were flying away from the whis­ Of PRICES & BIRDS AVAIL pigeons can hear the sonic boom, which \...1SI ABLE has infrasound components. If the tle, the pitch would seem to drop. Observ­ s\-\11' - ALL TYPES OF B pigeons were flying in a pre-course circle, ing the size of the circle that pigeons fly, \j'lE IAos getting their bearings, they might be able before heading for home, and the speed of to tell the direction the boom was corning their flight, it is reasonable to believe that from. What makes the difference between the pigeons may be able to tell the direc­ the infrasound while standing still and tions the infrasounds are corning from. hearing it while flying? Something called When they are standing still, they can hear the Doppler effect. The what? Glad you the infrasound, but they can't tell where it asked. is corning from. But if they are flying in Have you ever heard a train go by with different directions - toward the source the whistle blowing? It sounds like this, and away from it - they could hear the "Wheeee-ooooh", as it passes. You hear pitch change, and in this way they could the pitch change. On the approach the determine the direction it is corning from. pitch is higher. At the instant it passes, the Think about that for a moment. Here is pitch seems to drop. If you were the a bird that has a brain that weight less than engineer on the train, you'd hear the same one-fourth of an ounce, and it can pitch the whole time the whistle was blow­ demonstrate senses of perception that are 804/ 542-5961 ing, but to the listener outside the train, the more sophisticated than those of man - P.O. BOX 306 pitch seems to drop noticeably. That is the with a brain 200-times that size! CHARLOTTE COURT HOUSE, Doppler effect. As the distance between So what does all this new business about the source and the listener decreases, the infrasound mean in terms of the pigeons' VIRGINIA 23923 length of the waves is "compressed'', and horning ability? It means that they have

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17 some constantly available reference points 1978, at St. Louis, byW.T. Keeton, M.L. that make a previously unfamiliar release Kreithen and D.B. Quine from Cornell ALUMINUM area less strange than one might have University. These were followed by ques­ assumed - at least, as far as the infra­ tions from the audience. Some of the ques­ I. D. BIRD sound environment goes. Take a pigeon tions that listeners asked are presented from Ithaca, New York, put it in a con­ here with brief answers. tainer with no windows, take it to Georgia, Q. How many pigeons were they work­ and release it. First, he flies out in a broad ing with at Cornell? circle, and he listens. He may soon A. About 500 breeders - about 2,000 Inside Metric Meas. Numbered Price discover that he is closer to the Atlantic pigeons of all ages during the testing A 2.5 mm Finches 1 - 20 5c ea. Ocean than he was at Ithaca, even though seasons. B 3 mm Canaries 1 - 20 Sc ea. he cannot see the ocean or feel the Q. What strains ofhoming pigeons were c 4 mm Parakeets 1 - 20 7c ea. seabreeze. He will also have a different used? available in: Purple Red, Black, Silver, Gold, Lime, Green, Blue angle on the Rocky Mountains. Without A. Practically all of the better-known having a verbal understanding of "east" or strains that are flown in America. D 6 mm Cockatiels 1 -10 9c ea. "west", he may be able to place these Although the University's budget to pur­ E 8 mm Game Birds 1 - 10 11 c ea. F 10 mm Pheasant 1 - 10 11 c ea. familiar sounds in a mental map. He may chase experimental animals was limited, (small) shape this map with other infrasounds - many pigeon fanciers donated breeders to G 12 mm Pheasant 1 - 10 12c ea. perhaps the Gulf of Mexico, which is close the project. Dr. Keeton made sure that the available in: (large) to Georgia but far from New York. In famous strains of Belgian Racing Pigeons Green, Red, Silver, Blue, Gold other words, he may compare the infra­ were represented. Gordons, Huyskins, sound "picture" of the release site to the van Riels, and Trentons were some minimum order one he is used to at home. And using his of them. $5.00 +.75c postage & handling ability to hear infrasounds and tell which Do the pigeons "hear" infrasound with Calif. add 6% tax. directions they are coming from, he will their ears or some other organ? know to keep the Rocky Mountains on his A. Apparently, they detect infrasound hl (714) 826-5248 left, the Atlantic Ocean on his right, and with their ears. Pigeons with their ears ~ the Gulf of Mexico behind him. So he plugged had reduced sensitivity to infra­ !Bl'td !Band heads for home, continually comparing sounds. Deaf pigeons did not seem to f tJ ntvmational the infrasound "picture" along the way to detect infrasounds. We do not know what 10441 Barbara Ann, Cypress, CA 90630 the infrasound "picture" he is familiar with part of the ear is involved with infrasound at home. As it gets more and more detection. familiar, he knows he is going in the right direction. When the infrasound "picture" ********** is the same as the one he knows as home, CaJlfornla he knows he is near. It could be nighttime. I.ITERAroRE He could be wearing foggy contact lenses. General He could have an electromagnet around Emlen, S. T., "The Stellar-Orientation System of a Migratory Bird," Scientific American, Aug., 19n. his neck, knocking out his internal Keeton, W.T., "The Mystery of Pigeon Homing," magnetic compass. But give this pigeon ac­ Scientific American, Dec., 1974. cess to the infrasound, coursing through Barometric Pressure the air, and he can navigate without Krcithen, M.L. and Keeton, W.T., "Detection of xehange eyesight or compass. changes in atmospheric pressure by the homing Phone (805) 484-5477 PO. Box 275 Camarillo Calif. pigeon," J. Comparative Physiology, 90: 73-82, 93010 THAT, faithful reader, is the 1974. Since 1976 breakthrough - the discovery - the Infrasound hard-to-believe extra sense - the "secret Krcithen, M.L. and Quine, D.B., "Infrasound power" of the homing pigeon! Infrasound detection by the homing pigeon, a behavioral We Buy Birds audiogram," J. Comparative Physiology, 129: 1-4, sensitivity! Small wonder that, before 1979. now, men though it was some "super­ Quine, D.B., "Infrasound detection and frequen­ We Ship Birds human power". It is. cy discrimination by the homing pigeon," Ph.D. COMPLETE BIRD SUPPLIES Of course, on a clear day, pigeons will Thesis, Cornell University, May, 1979. use the sun. On cloudy days, they may still be able to use the sun, magnetic north, POPULAR REFERENCES Announcing ... now open to the barometric pressure, and the moon. But as National Geographic, Aug., 1979, "Mysteries of public. Last year we sold over you take away the more easily utilized Bird Migration.'' 44,000 birds ... this year we want Smithsonian, June, 1979, "Probing the Mysteries to sell you one. Write today for signals, they seem to have one more means of how Birds Navigate the Skies." The Sciences, our free monthly list. 40-80 to find home. Take away everything else, July-August, 1977, "Infrasound Navigation" varieties in stock. Contact us and they will fly up and down the invisible (New York Academy of Sciences). before you buy to save, save, save waves of infrasound. And they will still National Wildlife Magazine, April-May, 1979, money. find home. •'The Sounds of Silence. '' The Conservationist, Jan.-Feb., 1979, "The Phone Mysterious Genius of Homing Pigeons" (New (805) 484-5477 ********** York State Department of Environmental Conser­ vation). (805) 484-1400 This article is an adaptation of four Cornell Countryman, Spring, 1979, "Pigeon presentations at the American Pigeon Come Home'' (Cornell University School of Fanciers' Council, in 1973, 1974, 1977 and Agriculture). 18