290 THE SPEED OF BIRDS 



Upon forest trees the heat and sunshine have told with 

 marked effect, ripening the year's growth and causing the 

 foliage to assume such glory in dying as one seldom enjoys 

 in our cloudy clime. The tawny mantle of the oaks, the 

 russet splendour of the beech, the clear gold of Spanish 

 chestnuts and Norway maple, have yielded to our eyes 

 such a feast as is not often spread in Britain. But for 

 intensity of colour glowing carmine and vermilion 

 nothing has been able to vie with the geans or wild cherry. 

 Against this lavish display there is much to be set. The 

 sharp frost which recurred on nine consecutive nights in 

 mid-October smote the garden like a black plague. 



LXXII 



There are few matters upon which the testimony 

 The speed f eye- witnesses is less trustworthy than the 

 of Birds speed of moving objects. To realise this, 

 one has only to read the evidence in cases against 

 motorists. If the accused declares that he was running 

 a moderate fifteen miles an hour, there will be persons 

 ready to swear that the pace was five-and-thirty or forty 

 miles. And neither party need be suspected of any 

 intention to deceive. If this be so in respect of terrestrial 

 locomotion, far more is it so in regard to aerial move- 

 ment. The velocity of the flight of different kinds of 

 birds has been for long, and still remains, a subject of 

 keen controversy among ornithologists. There is the oft- 

 quoted instance of Henry n. of France's falcon, which 

 escaped from Fontainebleau and was recaptured at Malta 

 twenty-four hours later, implying an average speed, in- 

 cluding stoppages, of thirty-six English geographical miles 



