RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 73 



a fact, from our own experience on the Liverpool and Man- 

 chester railroad ; for, when rolling along at the rate of about 

 thirty miles an hour we saw bees and flies, sometimes hover- 

 ing round the carriages, sometimes settling, then, when dis- 

 turbed, flying to the right or left, in an irregular course, but 

 still keeping up, without the slightest appearance of extra 

 exertion ; and often when tired of continuing with the train, 

 shooting forward, and in an instant leaving us far behind, and 

 this, too, in opposition to a fresh breeze heading them. 



Another mode of ascertaining the flight of birds has been 

 by Carrier Pigeons. These are a particular breed, which can 

 be so trained, that when carried to great distances from the 

 place of their usual abode, and turned out, they will find their 

 way back. Some years ago, fifty-six of these birds were 

 brought over from a part of Holland where they are much 

 attended to, and turned out from London about half-past four 

 in the morning ; they all reached their dove-cots at home by 

 noon ; but one favourite Pigeon, called Napoleon, arrived about 

 a quarter after ten o'clock, having performed the distance of 

 300 miles at the rate of about fifty miles an hour, supposing 

 he lost not a moment, and proceeded in a straight line ; but 

 as they usually wheel about in the air for some time before 

 they start off, and then probably deviate more or less from the 

 direct course, this first bird must have flown, most likely, at 

 a much quicker rate; of which we have an instance which 

 occurred at the fair of Ballinasloe in Ireland, in 1842, where 

 a bird of this species belonging to Thomas Bernard, Esq., was 

 let go in the town at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, with a 

 note appended to it, directing dinner to be ready at his resi- 

 dence at Castle Bernard at a given time, as he purposed being 

 home that day, which message reached the appointed destina- 

 tion in eleven minutes, having travelled 23 miles Irish in that 

 wonderfully short space of time, or, in other words, at the rate 

 of 125J miles an hour. These Pigeons, of which Mr. Bernard 

 had a large flock, were so domesticated that he could handJe 

 them as he pleased, and so very tractable were they that when- 

 ever he called they attended promptly. 



