Speed of Birds 39 



apparently about 35 miles an hour, although a few exceptionally rapid birds 

 have made short distance flight at the rate of from 45 to 52 miles an hour. One 

 of the longest recorded flights of a Carrier Pigeon was from Pensacola, Florida, 

 to Fall River, Massachusetts, an air-line distance of 1183 miles, made in 15^ days, 

 or only about 76 miles a day. 



Herr Gatke, whose observations on Heligoland, a small island in the North 

 Sea, extended over a period of fifty years, would give to birds a speed that is 

 incredible. For example, the Gray Crows were believed by him to pass over the 

 360 miles between Heligoland and Lincolnshire at a rate of 120 miles an hour, 

 and Curlews, Godwits, and Plovers are said by him to cross from Heligoland to 

 the oyster beds lying to the eastward, a distance of a little more than 4 miles, in 

 one minute, or at the astonishing rate of 240 miles an hour. The error in these 

 observations, as suggested by Newton ("Dictionary of Birds," p. 566), probably 

 lies in the impossibility of identifying the individuals that leave one of the given 

 points with those first arriving at the other end of the line. Professor Newton 

 also calls attention to the fact that few birds, even Swallows and Quail, fly as fast 

 as an express train from whose windows they may be observed. It is a common 

 experience, when a train is passing along at no great speed, for various birds to 

 be flushed by it, but after flying vigorously for a few hundred yards they quickly 

 drop behind. 



But granting that the occasional speed is very considerable, the actual speed 

 of most migrating birds appears to be surprisingly low. Observations tending 

 to prove this were made some years ago under the direction of Professor W. W. 

 Cooke, in the Mississippi Valley. The services of over one hundred observers 

 were enlisted, at stations ranging from the Gulf to Manitoba. The date at which 

 a certain species was first noted at the most southern point was compared with 

 the first appearance of that species at the most northern point; the distance in 

 miles between these two stations is then divided by the number of days between 

 the observations. Thus the Baltimore Oriole was first seen at Rodney, Missis- 

 sippi, April 7, and was not observed at Oak Point, Manitoba, until May 25. The 

 distance in a straight line between these two places is 1298 miles, and as it took 

 48 days, the average speed was 27 miles a day. The records of fifty-eight species 

 for the spring of 1883 gave an average speed of 23 miles a day for an average 

 distance of 420 miles, while in the following year a slightly smaller number of 

 species gave exactly the same average speed over an average distance of 86 1 

 miles. In the case of individual species the results were of much interest. Thus 

 the Robin, Cowbird, and Yellowhammer traveled at an average speed of about 

 12 miles a day, while the average for the Summer Redbird, Ruby-throated Hum- 

 mingbird, and Nighthawk was 28 miles a day. It is, however, necessary to 

 take so many things into account in arriving at these conclusions that it is 

 easy to see the possibilities of error. For example, meteorological conditions 

 play an important part during migrations; a rain storm or an unusually cold spell 

 may retard progress for days. Even if the conditions are favorable, it is hardly 

 probable that the same individuals migrate for more than a night or two without 

 intermission, so that while the species may be making progress the individuals 



