RECORD PACE-MAKERS 29 



to drop into the water headlong, a common man- 

 oeuvre with Ducks when a pursuer's speed is too 

 much for them. 



The slow-flapping flight of large birds as com- 

 pared with their more briskly moving relatives in 

 the same family has long been recognized by sports- 

 men as very deceptive ; wild Swans, Capercailzie, 

 and wild Peafowl are all birds which need the shot 

 to be aimed well forward if they are to be fatally 

 hit, their flight being so very much faster than it 

 looks, especially to a shooter who has been used 

 to smaller fry. 



The fastest birds of all appear to be, as one would 

 expect, some of the Swifts, the palm among these 

 being assigned by Blanford, in the " Fauna of 

 British India," to the larger species of Spine-tails 

 (Chatura), which are stated by observers to whizz 

 by with a twang like a bowstring. It is noticeable 

 that the spiny-tipped tail in these birds, which, 

 like the similarly armed tail of most Woodpeckers 

 and Creepers, serves as a support when the owner 

 is clinging perpendicularly, is so short that it cannot 

 be of much use in directing their flight, and in 

 fact the Swifts generally, though better flyers than 

 Swallows, distinctly tend to be shorter in the 

 tail, and often dispense with the fork. 



In fact, the opposite development of the tail in 

 birds which fly well is very curious, some fine flyers 

 having a long forked tail, like Swallows,, Terns, 

 and Frigate-birds, while others, like the above- 

 mentioned Swifts, most Albatrosses and Vultures, 



