PACE AND LAST 119 



contract 93,600 times ! The red, stringy Depressor 

 muscle can claim more credit for these marvellous 

 flights than any of the others. The heart, the lungs, 

 the whole machine, must be very strong and in 

 perfect working order. 



Sometimes birds make long flights, requiring great 

 endurance, in the course of their day-to-day life. 

 Of this I give an astonishing example, which is 

 vouched for by two highly competent observers : 

 " Another fact that well-nigh struck dumb the 

 authors was that Ducks shot at dawn at Daimiel are 

 found to be crop -full of rice. Now the nearest rice 

 grounds are at Valencia, distant 180 miles ; hence 

 these Ducks, not as a migratory effort, but merely 

 as incidental to each night's food supply, have sped 

 at least 360 miles between dusk and dawn "* — and, 

 we may add, are probably ready to do it again the 

 next day and the next. Such a trifle as 360 miles 

 seems to put no strain on the digestive apparatus 

 or any part of the organism. The heaviest meal is 

 dealt with easily and causes no torpidity. 



Whatever help the wind may give, it would seem 

 to be a fair inference from the examples which I 

 have quoted that birds surpass other animals in 

 vitality. It is not for nothing that their normal 

 temperature ranges in the case of some species to 

 111° F., and even slightly over. 



* Unexplored Spain, p. 187, by Abel Chapman and Walter Buck- 



