How migratory birds can navigate home from their wintering grounds to their breeding sites
over hundreds and thousands of kilometres has been an admired mystery over more than a
century. Profound advances towards a solution of this problem have been achieved with a model
bird, the homing pigeon. This monograph summarizes our current knowledge about pigeon homing,
about the birds' application of a sun compass and a magnetic compass, of a visual topographical map
within a familiar area and -- most surprisingly - of an olfactory map using atmospheric chemosignals
as indicators of position in distant unfamiliar areas.
