PACE AND LAST 117 



established itself that a bird would rather face a 

 gale than fly before it. 



Endurance, 



I have already to a great extent dealt with the 

 question of endurance. It cannot be separated from 

 the question of pace when one is discussing the great 

 southward flight of the American Golden Plover or 

 the voyage of the land birds to their winter home 

 in New Zealand, or even the flights of Homing 

 Pigeons. In 1892 the bird that won the great race 

 of the Manchester Flying Club from Nantes kept up 

 a speed of 35| miles per hour for a distance of 430 

 miles. He was flying for over 12 hours, during which 

 his flight muscles had no rest. I am assuming that he 

 did not stop to rest. If he did stop for any length 

 of time, his speed while he was on the wing must 

 have been much over 35 miles. The wind was 

 favourable, from the south-west, and the weather 

 was fine, but this does not make the achievement a 

 commonplace one. Another bird, when the Preston 

 and District Homing Society had their Nantes race, 

 flew home — a distance of 441 miles — at a rate of 36 

 miles per hour. A man considers 30 miles in a day 

 a long walk. What a horse without a rider could 

 do I don't know, but I feel sure it would be some- 

 thing far short of 400 miles. 



In April, 1909, when I was on my way to Egypt, 

 some Herons which were making their spring -migra- 

 tion flight over the Mediterranean showed astonishing 

 endurance. When they first appeared — a flock of 

 rather over 20 — at 5.30 in the afternoon, they must 

 already have flown at least 300 miles from the coast 



