Bird Flight 189 



words, though the gnat needs wing surface in a ratio of 

 forty-nine square feet per pound of weight, a great condor 

 manages to sail along majestically with .59 of a square 

 foot to at least a pound of weight. The unexplained 

 phenomenon persists, consistently throughout the whole 

 domain of entomology and ornithology. Going up the 

 scale from the gnat, it is found that with the dragon fly 

 this ratio is 30 to i, with the tipula, or daddy-longlegs, 

 14.5 to i, the cockchafer only 5.15 to i, the rhinoceros 

 beetle 3.14 to i. 



"Among birds the paradoxical law that the smaller 

 the creature the bigger the relative supporting wings 

 holds good. A screech owl (Scops zorcd) weighing one- 

 third of a pound had 2.35 square feet of wing surface per 

 pound of weight. A fish hawk (Pandion halicetus) weigh- 

 ing nearly three pounds had a wing area of 1.08 square 

 feet to each pound. A turkey buzzard weighing 5.6 

 pounds had a little less than one square foot of wing 

 surface to each pound. A griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) 

 weighing 16.52 pounds had a wing surface of only .68 

 square feet to the pound. 



" Students of aerial navigation who are devoting much 

 attention to observations of birds say that if the peculiar 

 law governing extant flying creatures could be fathomed 

 the problem of human flight might be solved." 



