64 THE BIEDS OF HELIGOLAND 



in peace before again taking up its journej'. As we shall show 

 later on, the bird, in spite of these various stoppages, would j'et 

 have had ample time to reach Malta within the period mentioned 

 above. 



Yon Middendorft's observation led him to conclude that pigeons 

 and other birds are able to j^erform four geographical miles in six 

 minutes, and even in half that time. He adds, however, ' that birds 

 fly at nothing like this speed during their migration journeys. 

 The velocity with which they passed from one place to another 

 probably did not fall much below this calculation ; but they rested, 

 where they found it convenient to do so, and consequently in the 

 course of a day's journey did probalily not advance more than from 

 about sixteen to forty-eight geographical miles.' This result, arrived 

 at by so profound and erudite an enquirer as von Middendorif, is the 

 more astonishing inasmuch as the observations on which it is 

 supported were made at the time of the spring migration, during 

 which, so far as my experience goes, birds are considerably less 

 inclined to interrupt their journey than during the autumn move- 

 ment. 



The next example of rapidity of flight, which far exceeds von 

 Middendortf's statement, is furnished bj- a Carrier-Pigeon, which on 

 the occasion of a flying comjJetition from Ghent to Rouen, attained 

 to a speed of one hundred geographical miles in an hour (Yarrell, 

 Brit. Birds, 1845, ii. p. 296). The instance in question is cited in 

 the account of the Rock Dove — of which species the Carrier-Pigeon 

 is a development — and it cannot be doubted that the flight-capacity 

 of the latter form, which had lived in a domesticated state for many 

 generations, must have fallen far short of that of its primitive wild 

 ancestor. 



My own studies on this subject have yielded results which, in 

 the most surprising manner, surpass all that has been said above. 

 Even in the case of so apparently sluggish a flyer as the Hooded Crow, 

 which it would be ridiculous to enter in a match against a Carrier- 

 Pigeon, a speed of migi-ation flight of no less than one hundred and 

 eight geographical miles per hour has been established. Nor was 

 this an exceptional performance, as was most probably that of the 

 Carrier-Pigeon jareviously referred to, but the ordinary normal rate 

 of flight persisted in by millions — nay, billions, of these birds during 

 their annual autumn migrations. Such a jJerformance on the part 

 of the Hooded Crow, however, justifies us in assuming that birds 

 with closer plumage, and provided with more eiScient instruments 

 of flight, such as the noble Falcons, Swallows, Pigeons, the larger 

 species of Plovers and Sandpipers, ought certainly to be capable of 

 incomparably greater achievements in this direction. This they 



