BIRD PROBLEMS 217 



only to progress slowly, but to use its wings in like 

 manner. And yet the late Duke of Argyll has pointed 

 out, and anyone may verify the statement by his 

 watch, that the heron seldom flaps his wings at a 

 rate of less than from one hundred and twenty to 

 one hundred and fifty times in a minute. This is 

 counting only the downward strokes, so that the 

 bird really makes from two hundred and forty to 

 three hundred separate movements a minute. 



Our short-winged game birds fly with incredible 

 velocity, and any attempt to observe or count their 

 wing movements leaves but a blurred impression 

 upon the eye; whilst in some species so quick is the 

 vibratory movement as to prevent its being seen. 

 Even slender-bodied birds, like hawks and falcons, 

 have frequently flown through thick plate looking- 

 glasses, and driven grouse, flying " down wind," 

 have been known to seriously stun sportsmen by 

 falling upon their heads. A grouse does not move 

 its wings so rapidly as a partridge, though the late 

 C S was once clean knocked out of a battery 

 by a grouse he had shot falling upon him ; and in this 

 way loaded guns have frequently been fired by dead 

 birds. The Duke of Beaufort upon one occasion 

 picked up a brace of grouse which had cannoned 

 and killed each other in mid-air, and colliding is not 

 an unfrequent occurrence. 



Here I have only touched upon the speed and 



