44 BIEDS. 



a third and most distinctive dress. These changes, however, do not extend to the 

 quills either of the wings or the tail. Though the annual moult commonly takes 

 place in birds as soon as the breeding season is over, there are plenty of cases 

 •where it is delayed to a later period of the year, notably the Swallow, which has 

 long been known to moult in midwinter. But unquestionably most birds accom- 

 plish the change much earlier, and before they leave their breeding quarters for 

 their winter haunts, thereby starting on one of their great annual journeys with 

 all the machinery of flight renewed, and in the best condition for escaping its 

 attendant perils {Enc, Brit.), 



VELOCITY IN FLIGHT. 



Mr. Tegetmeier regards as mere fiction the oft-repeated statement that the 

 Homing Pigeon flies at the rate of 100 miles an hour. There is no recorded 

 case of its flying 60. The Homing Pigeon requires to be well trained and strong 

 to be enabled to fly at the rate of 45 miles an hour, and it may with safety be 

 stated that it has never been known to exceed 50 miles in that time. 



The "record" speed for a Homing Pigeon in 1898, as given in the Daily 

 Telegraph (21.11.98) was in a flight from Berwick to London, 300 miles, at "an 

 average of 1,551 yards to the minute," or nearly 53 miles an hour. The same 

 edition also reported another flight from the Shetland Isles, 600 miles in 14 J 

 hours, or at nearly il^ miles an hour. The Penny Magazine (April, 1899) reports 

 a flight of 182 miles from a ship off the Eddystone to the Naval Dovecote, 

 Whale Island, Portsmouth, in 3J hours, or at a rate of 52 miles an hour. 



AGE OF BIRDS. 



The birds said to live to the greatest age are the Eagle, the Swan, and the 

 Kaven, which sometimes attain more than 100 years. The average life of a 

 Wren is 3 years; the Heron, the Parrot, the Goose, and the Pelican live 60 

 years ; the Peacock and the Linnet, 25 years ; the Canary, 24 years ; the Pigeon 

 and the Crane, 20 years; the Goldfinch and the Pheasant, 15 years; the Lark, 

 13 years; the Blackbird and the Eobin Kedbreast, 12 years; the Thrush, 10 

 years. 



