INTRODUCTION. 5 



minutes it would fly to so great a distance as 

 to be entirely out of our sight. These birds 

 are said to traverse a space of four thousand five 

 hundred feet in a minute; they may therefore, 

 without difficulty, perform a journey of four 

 hundred leagues in a day, if they were on the 

 wing ten hours out of the twenty-four, which 

 would allow them quite time enough for rest and 

 feeding. That many birds can, and do take 

 such long flights in a short period, has been 

 proved by the observations of travellers and 

 naturalists. Swallows have been seen and caught 

 on the coast of Senegal on the 9th of October, 

 that is to say, eight or nine days after their de- 

 parture from Europe. There is a well-known 

 story of a falcon belonging to Henry the Second 

 of France, which, pursuing with eagerness a 

 small bustard at Fontainbleau, strayed away 

 from the royal party to which it belonged, 

 and was taken the following day at Malta, the 

 ring which she bore on her foot marking her out 

 as the same bird. A falcon from the Canary 

 Isles, sent to the Duke of Lerma, flew back to 

 the Isle of Teneriffe in sixteen hours, which is a 

 passage of two hundred and fifty leagues. Sea- 

 gulls are said to go a distance of more than two 

 hundred miles, and return the same day. 



Another remarkable peculiarity in birds is 



