368 AVES 



Speed of Flight. — Migrating birds are able to reach a speed of loo 

 miles an hour and travel from i,ooo to 5,000 feet above the earth. 

 A carrier pigeon is recorded as having averaged fifty-five miles an 

 hour for four hours, probably exceeding the speed of most migrants. 



Mr. Thomas Ross, who is in charge of the army lofts at Fort 

 Monmouth, N. J., is quoted (American Magazine, June 1928) as 

 stating that an American carrier pigeon flew 300 miles at a little 

 over seventy-one miles an hour. He also quotes the unsubstan- 

 tiated statement that a pin-tail duck has made 125 miles an hour. 

 Herons, hawks and flickers fly about twenty-five miles per hour. 

 According to Chapman, the great wandering albatross of the South- 

 ern Seas has been known to fly 3,400 miles in eight days. 



Economic Importance of Birds. Positive. — i. The eggs and 

 flesh of the common fowl, ducks, geese, and even the ostrich, are 

 eaten. 



1. Feathers of the ostrich, the egret and the bird of paradise 

 have been in times past great favorites for ornamentation. 



3. The Chinese are extremely fond of the edible birds' nests 

 secured along the coast, north of Borneo. 



4. From the Islands of the South Pacific comes the important 

 fertilizer known as guano. ^ This has been deposited for centuries. 



5. As scavengers, the buzzards and vultures are especially 

 valuable. 



6. Birds are preeminently our best friends in that they destroy 

 insects, rodents and the seeds of our most pestiferous weeds. The 

 English starling, until recently considered as great a pest as the 

 English sparrow, is, according to S. S. Pennock of Philadelphia, an 

 extremely successful hunter of the larvae of the Japanese beetle. 



Negative. — i. Destroyers of poultry. Very few birds attack 

 domestic fowls. Several species of the hawks may be classed as 

 injurious, while the only owl that is injurious is the great horned owl. 



2. Enemies of beneficial birds. The English sparrow, the 

 starling and the jay drive away other birds and the jay eats eggs 

 and young. The shrike or butcher bird is an important enemy of 

 our bird friends. 



3. Destroyers of crops and fruits. The crow, the English spar- 

 row, the robin, and the grackle consume some of our food products. 



' For further information regarding guano, consult: Murphy, R. C. 1924. The 

 most valuable bird in the world. Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 46, p. 279, and Coker, R. E. 

 1920. Peru's wealth producing birds. Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 37, pp. 537-566. 



