(554 THE GREATEST FLYING CREATURE. 



The curve (Plate V) shows the same facts in a graphic form, and they 

 seem to me to deserve a fuller explanation than has yet been given to 

 them. 



I now invite the reader's attention to Mr. Lucas's interesting paper. 



S. P. Langley. 



THE GREATEST FLYING CREATURE, THE GREAT PTERODACTYL 

 ORNITHOSTOMA. 



By F. A. Lucas, 



United States Natiomil Miiseinn. 



No one animal c<)m})ines all the best features of weight, power, and 

 wing area needed iji a flying machine, for those with the greatest ex- 

 panse of wing are by no means the heaviest and strongest, while the 

 most powerful birds are not those of the longest sustained flight or 

 those which fly to the best advantage if considered from an economical 

 standpoint. The Frigate Bird, which is perhaps the bird of all others 

 most at home in the air, lacks carrying capacity, being so far as mere 

 muscle goes comparatively weak, sailing by skill and not by strength. 

 Birds of prey, on the other hand, which can cany away a (luarry of 

 very nearly their own weight, fl}' when thej do this by labored strokes 

 of their powerful pinions, with an apparent expenditure of considera- 

 ble power, sailing or soaring only when not encumbered })y extra 

 weight. 



The AUmtross, which has a maximum weight- of 18 pounds and a 

 spread of wing of 11 feet 6 inches, is the most notable example we 

 have of long sustained flight in a heav3^ bird," and it is the more 

 remarkable from the fact that as the wing is extremely narrow its 

 area is very small, not exceeding 7 square feet. The surplus lifting- 

 power of this bird is quite small, since the wing nuiscles on whose 

 area we must base our estimate of the amount of force exercised in 

 flight are comparatively small. Both the Albatross and Frigate Bird, 

 however, are of double interest from the very fact of their great ex- 

 tent of wing and small amount of muscle, since they thus throw some 

 light on the que'"*^ion of the length of wing that may be manipulated 

 with a given force. 



■' Sailor!^ soiHL'tiiiu's i-atcli an Albatro^is, fasten to it a tag bearing the name of tlie 

 ship, date of capture, latitude and longitude, and then release the bird. A specimen 

 thus tagge<l and subsequently taken by another shiji is preserved in the museun) of 

 Brown University, show-ig that in twelve days it had traversed a distance of at least 

 M,lriO miles, probably more, since the Albatross rarely flies in a direct line. 



