THE PROBLEM OF THE SOARING BIRD. : 57 
above, from beneath, and at every sort of obliquity. The con- 
clusions of observations made from the ground at thirty feet 
distance were confirmed from the tree-top stations at all distances, 
from twelve inches upwards. In the first Florida year observa- 
tions were made with good results about 150 times, during which 
all the varieties of soaring birds of 100 miles of coast line were 
viewed. The trees of the country are short and stunted, and 
easily climbed, and alittle search was rewarded by the discovery 
of thick sturdy tops in which a secure lodgment could be had. 
The birds abounded in prodigious numbers, thousands occupying 
a single roosting-ground. Not only was it seen that there was no 
motion of the wing as a whole, but that there was none of the 
individual feathers. There was no tremor, no slow nor fast 
waving; the entire bird moved when the wing did. When the 
wing was flapped there was no doubt about it, and the flapping 
could be seen as far almost as the bird was visible. Both the 
“soaring” and flapping were discoverable when they occurred 
beyond any doubt whatever. To determine horizontality of the 
sea-breezes of the coast, a radial arm, feathered and balanced 
level, was used. It is evident that somewhere in the interior of 
the peninsula there must be an upward trend of the meeting 
winds from the Atlantic and Gulf, but there is none discoverable 
on the western coast. The wind, twenty-five feet above tide, 
moves uniformly on level lines, and ten feet above the forest tree- 
tops no upward flow can be found. The lantern of Egmont Light, 
150 feet high, at the entrance of Tampa Bay, was frequently used 
for these atmospheric observations. 
There is a wide range in the relation between weight of bird 
and wing-surface in the different species. It varies from less 
than one to more than two feet for each pound weight. Uniformly 
the longer the wing to a given weight the greater the power of 
translation possessed by the bird, the “ man-of-war hawks,” in this 
respect, surpassing all others. Wide, short wings were coupled 
with heavy bodies, as in the Gannets, and these exhibited slower 
but steadier flight. The heavier the bird the steadier and easier 
seemed its movements, and a hungry Vulture, which was very 
shaky in the breeze, could ride serenely when gorged with 
carrion. 
The only peculiarities discoverable in the atmospheric condi- 
tion required for soaring, was that the wind in all cases should 
ZOOLOGIST.—FEB. 1886. F 
