298 PUNCTUAL ARRIVAL OF BIRD] MIGRANTS. 



another paragraph from Mr. Dixon's interesting work 

 with respect to it: 



" The punctuality of arrivals of birds (he says) at their sum- 

 mer or winter quarters is nothing less than astonishing. Tak- 

 ing into account the length of the journey, and the consequent 

 number and variety of possible causes of delay ; the best kept 

 time of the crack expresses, or fastest ocean steamers, abso- 

 lutely sufters by comparison. The one hour late in the 200 

 miles run of an express, or the 24, in the 5000 miles voy- 

 age of a steamer, is certainly a far worse record than the 

 one day late in the 5000 miles, or the couple of days in 

 10,000 miles flight of a bird, at the mercy of countless con- 

 tingencies neither the train nor the boat have to battle with. 

 And yet, this is a simple statement of facts. Migratory birds 

 may be looked for almost to the day, as anyone can prove, 

 by keeping a record during a series of years." * 



There can we think be little doubt that these ob- 

 servations of Mr. Dixon are strictly borne out by fact, 

 and that not only do the birds beat the best human 

 records in point of punctuality, but also enormously 

 exceed them in rapidity. We have been at some 

 pains to look up the latest reliable data which have 

 been recorded with respect to the highest speed as 

 yet attained by trains; which, on the authority of The 

 Scientific American, we find is given at 112.5 miles 

 per hour, accomplished by the New York " Empire 

 State Express," and that it was hoped shortly to 

 beat that record by running a mile in thirty seconds, f 

 that would be 120 miles per hour. But these great 

 speeds, we need hardly say, are only kept up for 

 short distances, on a selected stretch of perfectly level 



* The Migration of Birds, an Attempt to reduce Avian Season 

 Flight to Law, by Charles Dixon, 1892, pp. 71, 72. 

 | Engineer (London) of June 2, 1893, p. 471. 



