Abstract
SUMMARY This paper attempts to illustrate recent advances in research into the navigation mechanism of the homing pigeon. Despite a good deal of polemic and a number of experimental findings which are apparently or in fact contradictory, the principal characteristics of the mechanism by which pigeons establish the home direction are now known. The information necessary for navigation is provided by olfactory stimuli originating in substances dispersed in the atmosphere. The homing capacity of pigeons deprived of olfaction and released at unfamiliar sites is always greatly reduced. W.T. KEETON'S idea, according to which anosmic pigeons are not motivated to fly, is contradicted by their long flights in all directions, and by their ability to return home from familiar sites. A correct experimentation with anosmic pigeons released at sites symmetrically distributed around the home loft, shows that in general they do not fly off in the home direction and that they often prefer a specific compass direction (pre...
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