134 THE BIRD WATCHER 
wing, I think, is considerably smaller in proportion 
to the body than is that of the wild duck. When I 
see these birds going along over the sea at the rate 
they do, it does not seem to me impossible that a man 
should fly, if only his arms were to sprout feathers 
and his pectoral muscles enlarge sufficiently to enable 
him to move them with the same quickness. Is 
there, by the by, any special adaptation to the 
power of flight in the body and bones of a bat? 
We are generally referred to such arrangements in 
reference to the flight of birds, with a view to lessen- 
ing the wonder of it, as if birds were the only things 
that flew. Bats, however, are mammals like ourselves, 
and their aerial performances are very wonderful. I 
have often watched them and the swifts together, at 
the close of a summer day, and have been hardly able 
to decide which of the two showed the greater mastery 
over the element in which both moved. The swifts 
indeed alone skimmed on outspread wings, without 
pulsating them ; but in quick, sudden turns in every 
direction, in the power of instantaneously and abruptly 
changing the angle of their flight, and especially in 
descending, sometimes almost perpendicularly, the 
bats excelled them. In regard to speed, the disparity 
did not appear to be so great as I suppose it must 
have been. I do not know if any observations have 
been made to determine the speed at which bats fly, 
but they often seem to go very fast. 
To return to the puffins, their powers of flight 
extend a little beyond mere speed gained by constant 
