1 90 The Migration of Birds 



very much more readily than the actual speed on 

 any particular day. For example, the barn ■swallow 

 arrives at Greencove, Florida, March fifteenth, and 

 forty days later arrives at New Beflin, N. Y., eight 

 hundred and seventy miles north. This is an average 

 flight of about twenty-one miles per day, but when 

 we take into consideration time for rest, storms, and 

 other hindrances, the actual distance covered on some 

 days must have been considerably greater. This, 

 however, does not test the flight of the swallow when 

 considered for a short time. Experiments have been 

 made in which swallows attained a speed of one hun- 

 dred and six miles per hour. 



In our migrations the average speed of fifty or 

 sixty species per day is a little less than twenty-five 

 miles. The wild goose in migrating northward covers 

 a distance of from three hundred to six hundred miles 

 in a single flight, the American golden plover exceed- 

 ing even this by a thousand miles. 



We have now considered the various phases of 

 bird migration in spring and fall, and noted that the 

 last to come were the first to go, and that the earHer 

 birds remained the longer. Must we drop our de- 

 lightful out-of-door bird study for the next three 

 months — December, January, February? By no 

 means. Of course for many of our lady bird-lovers 



