THE GREATEST FLYING CREATURE. 



(553 



.1/. de Lucy's table. 

 [From the Fourth Annual Report of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain for 1869, page 63.] 



[NSECTS. 



BIRDS. 



Swallow 



Sparrow 



Turtle dove 



Pigeon 



1.82 



•_'. 72 

 •J. 13 



I ' 



In this table each creature is supposed to be magnified or diminished 

 in all its existing proportions till it weighs 1 pound. The surface 

 dimensions of its wings will then be as given. 



The above insects and birds vibrate their wings and do not soar. 

 The table shows that the law (i. e., the law that the larger the creature 

 the less* the necessary relative area of support to a given weight) holds 

 not only in the case of the large soaring bird, but in the case of smaller 

 ones which flap their wings, and even in the case of insects. The 

 explanation may be very near at hand, but it is not to me evident. 



The accompanying table, from Mouillard's L'Empire de L'Air, 

 deals with the same facts, and exhibits the paradoxical law that the 

 greater the creature the smaller the (relative) supporting surface: 



Table showing weight, wing area, and square feet of iving surface which sustains / pound 



of weight. '■' 



Latin name. 



Common name. 



Scops zorca Screech owl 



Accipiter nisus Sparrow hawk 



Larus melanocephalus Black-headed gull 



Astur palumbarius Gosshawk 



( >tus brachyotus 



[bis falcinellua 



Corvus corax 



Milvus segyptiacus 



Pandion haliaetus 



Neophron percnopterus 



Cathartes aura 



Pelecanus onocrotalus 



Phcenicopterus antiquorum . . . 



Gyps fulvus 



Sarci irhampb.ua gryphua 



< >t( >gyps auricularis 



Short-eared owl ... 



Glossy ibis 



Raven 



Kite 



Fishhuwk 



Scavenger vulture. 

 Turkey buzzard . . . 



White pelican 



Flamingo 



Griffon vulture 



Condor 



Eared vulture 



'Data compiled chiefly from Mouillard, L. 1'., L'Empire de L'Air. Paris, 1881. 



