BIRDS' FLIGHT, AND BIRDS' WINGS. 63 



ing is often performed — always perhaps ex- 

 cept in the case of the vulture — for the sake of 

 rest, or the mere pleasure and joy of living. 



Concerning the speed of a bird in full flight 

 we know but litlle. 



We have records however of the feats of 

 homing-pigeons and of swallows, many of which 

 have been ridiculously exaggerated. Thus, Pliny 

 tells of a certain Roman knight who wished 

 to convey to his friends at Yolterra, in 

 Tuscany, the result of the chariot races in 

 Rome, and for this purpose took swallows 

 with him. A swallow sent from Roubaix to 

 Paris — 160 miles — is said to have covered the 

 distance in 90 minutes, a speed of 106 miles per 

 hour ! It is stated that one of the racing homing- 

 pigeons in 1892 accomplished a flight of 114 

 miles at a rate of 80 miles per hour. In the 

 same year a flight of 82 miles is recorded, the 

 rate of the speed attained being 71 miles per 

 hour. Thirty-six to fifty-six miles per hour 

 for a course of 208 miles was the average of 

 the winning birds of the United Counties Flying 

 Club in 1883. High up in the air it is probable 

 that a bird ^ can attain greater speed than near 

 the ground, and that this moreover can be 

 sustained for long periods. Thus the American 

 golden plover on migration is said to cover 

 over 1700 miles in a single night!! As Mr 

 Headley an authority on this subject says, "Even 

 if we assume an average of 60 miles per hour, 

 the birds would be over 28 hours on the 

 wing." 



Gatke, a great German ornithologist, who spent 



