THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



natural history tell us, to be sure, of flight speeds that 

 make the new records seem slow. They credited the 

 European swift, for example, with two hundred and 

 fifty miles an hour. But more recent observers, made 

 cautious by the scientific spirit of our age, are disposed 

 to discredit such estimates, which confessedly are little 

 better than guesses. 



The only officially timed bird flights are the flights 

 of homing pigeons; and here the record credits the 

 homing bird with only one hundred miles an hour. 

 This means 124 feet a second, as against the motor's 

 193. According to these figures, the automobile could 

 give the pigeon a start of almost two thousand feet and 

 yet sweep forward and overtake it in its flight, before 

 it passed the mile-post. Perhaps the comparison is 

 not quite fair, since no doubt the pigeon may perform 

 some individual miles of its journey at more than the 

 average speed; but it may well be doubted whether 

 its maximum ever reaches the mile-rate of 27.33 

 seconds. 



It is within the possibilities, however, that some other 

 birds have even surpassed this speed. The falcon, 

 for example, is probably a swifter bird than the pigeon, 

 at least for short distances. Some one indeed has 

 credited the hawks with a speed of one hundred and 

 fifty miles an hour. But this, I feel sure, is a great 

 exaggeration. I once saw a hen harrier pursue a 

 prairie-chicken, without seeming to gain appreciably 

 for a long distance; yet the prairie-chicken is by no 

 means among the speediest of birds. Many of our 

 ducks, for example, quite outclass it; indeed I should 



[168] 



