32 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



through the lesser burden to be carried in the air; 

 and the bird surely should have an advantage over 

 the insect through the greater length and strength of 

 its wings, the most powerful and long fliers among 

 birds being those with long wings. The truth clearly 

 is this the bee and fly would be easily outpaced by 

 any quick-flying bird were it not for the amazingly 

 short time they take to accomplish a full stroke of 

 the wing. 



A thought of the camera, perhaps, with its in- 

 stantaneous shutter, may help to give an idea of the 

 insect's swiftness in accomplishing one stroke and 

 beginning and ending the next. In photography we 

 talk of an exposure of the sixtieth of a second. But 

 if a bee were as slow as this in completing her stroke, 

 her honeycombs would take long in the filling. She 

 has to fly far afield sometimes to reach the glorious 

 sheets of sainfoin or heather, perhaps two miles ; 

 indeed, some bee-masters think she will roam farther 

 than this for her stores. The bee is by no means the 

 quickest of insects to complete her wing stroke the 

 common house fly is almost as quick again but she 

 is more than three times as quick as an instantaneous 

 shutter which gives the sixtieth of a second exposure. 



In one second her wing completes a hundred and 

 ninety strokes. Are the stars more wonderful than 

 this ? 



Marey long ago proved these figures of miracle 

 motion by a series of trials, exquisite and simple. All 



