RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 89 



they can pass through the air, and their capacity for 

 continuing on the wing without heing fatigued. 

 Few people, we helieve, are aware of the very great 

 rapidity of a bird's flight, and many will doubtless 

 be surprised when they are informed, that even our 

 slower birds can most of them make their way at 

 the rate of thirty miles an hour, without any ex- 

 traordinary effort; but that, if pressed, they can 

 considerably exceed that speed. There is an easy 

 way of ascertaining with tolerable accuracy the rate of 

 a bird's flight, which from experience we can recom- 

 mend as equally amusing and interesting. It is 

 this: 



Suppose any bird, a Partridge for instance, rises 

 in the middle of a stubble, and flies in a straight 

 line over a hedge ; all the observer has to do, is to 

 note by the second's hand of a watch (and those 

 who have not second's-hand watches may easily 

 learn, at least sufficiently for practical purposes, to 

 count them), the number of seconds between the 

 moment of the bird's rising and that of its topping 

 the hedge; and then ascertain the distance between 

 the point from whence it rose and the hedge, by 

 stepping and counting the number of paces; when, 

 supposing each pace to be a yard, we have a com- 

 mon Eule of Three sum. Thus, if a Partridge, in 

 three seconds, flies one hundred yards, how many 

 yards will it fly in 3600 seconds, or one hour ? or 



seconds yards seconds 



as 3 : ]00 : : 3600 : to the number of yards 

 required, which will be 3 -^^|<li or ] 20,000 yards, 

 which will amount to (as there are 1760 yards in a 

 mile) about sixty miles an hour. 



