XII. THE SPEED OF THE PIGEON-POST 



IT seems probable that current estimates of the speed 

 of birds' flight must be modified. In a recent race 

 a number of carrier-pigeons were flown from the Shet- 

 land Islands to London. This is a great distance even 

 for trained birds, the total length of the journey being 

 591-^ miles. The date being only a week after the 

 longest day of the year, the birds had the advantage of 

 daylight during their whole flight, and the winner 

 reached the house of its owner, Mr. Clutterbuck, of 

 Stanmore, in eight minutes under sixteen hours. They 

 had been liberated at Lerwick at 3.30 a.m. The official 

 weather-chart of the Meteorological Office gave, not for 

 the first time, information of the utmost value for esti- 

 mating the conditions of wind under which the flight 

 was made. Every < arrow ' from Kirkwall to London 

 pointed due south. In other words, the birds had the 

 wind behind them throughout their journey. The 

 result is that, in what is very nearly an approach to a 

 migration flight, the pigeons travelled at a speed of 



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