656 THE GREATEST FLYING CREATURE. 



performed by powerful wing beats, while the latter bird rarelj' Haps 

 its wings, but sails over the water with little apparent expenditure of 

 muscular power. In default of these l)irds the Wild Goose {Bernida 

 canadensis) and Turkey Buzzard may serve as representatives of differ- 

 ences in method and apparatus of flight. 



The goose, like his relative the swan, flies by means of the strokes 

 of his wings and carries a weight of 9 pounds, with a wing area of 

 2.65 square feet and a muscle area of 8.84 square inches; the sailing- 

 buzzard, with a weight of 5 pounds, has a wing area of 5.3 square feet 

 and a muscle area of 5.12 square inches. Thus the one bird has 0.3 

 square foot area of wing per pound of weight, while the other has 1.06 

 square feet per pound of weight. Or, if we wish to compare the area 

 of wing to the area of sternum, we may say that in the goose ti is 

 ratio is 43 to 1 and in the buzzard 149 to 1. The minimum of wing 

 area, l)oth p(jsitively and comparatively, is rouched in the humming 

 birds, which may be typitied l)y a species connnon in Barbados {Etihon- 

 pis chlorolxmus). This little bird, weighing 0.015 pound, has a wing 

 area of 0.026 square foot, and a nmscle area of 0.33 square inch, a 

 ratio of 11.4 to 1, Avhile, if brought up to ounces, the wing area per 

 ounce would be but 0.76 square inch. 



These differences are dwelt on at some length in the introduction to 

 this paper, where they are graphically expressed by means of diagrams 

 and compared with the weight, horsepower, and supporting area of 

 a flying machine. 



The l)uzzard may be compared to a racing yacht with small hull and 

 great spread of canvas; the humming ])ird, like a torpedo Ijoat, is 

 mainh' engine. 



Mau)mals may be practicall}- left out of (.-onsideration in discussing 

 large flying creatures, for while many of the bats fly with the utmost 

 dexterit}', none of them attain any considerable size, the largest of the 

 fruit bats {Pterojjus eduUs) weighing under 3 pounds and having a 

 spread of wing of 5 feet. Almost everyone? is acijuainted with the 

 rapid fluttering flight of small bats, and it need onl}^ be said that the 

 large species fl}' with measured wing beats not unlike those of a crow. 



Such are some of the flying forms of to-day, and, with few exceptions, 

 they seein not to have been exceeded bv any creatures of the past. 

 Ilarpuyornis^ the extinct eagle of New Zealand, was larger and more 

 powerful than any existing bird of prey, although the South American 

 harpy eagle is a near second;" but the more notal)le exceptions were 

 the great fl\'ing reptiles, or pterodactyls, which abounded on the shores 

 of the inland sea that during Cretaceous time extended from the Gulf 

 of Mexico up the Mississippi Valley and northwesterly through Kansas. 

 And as the luiue dinosaurs were the laroest ereatures that ever walked. 



" A specimen of this bird, Thrasacius harpyia, in the National Zoological Parli, 

 weighs 192 pounds. 



