ship, or in such favoured spots as are to be found about the 

 bridges of London during the winter, careful watch will show 

 that the legs are frequently used when efforts are being made 

 to turn, or check the speed of flight. 



Some of the smaller petrels — ^like the storm-petrel, or 

 " Mother Carey's chickens," wiU patter over the water with 

 their feet as they fly just over the surface of the waves. 



Whether the legs are carried drawn close up beneath the 

 breast, or thrust backwards under the tail, the purpose of 

 this disposal is the same — ^to prevent any interference with 

 the " stream-hnes " of the body which would impede flight. 



On the matter of the speed of flight there seems to 

 be much misconception. Gatke, the German ornithologist, 

 gravely asserted that the httle Arctic blue-throat — one of 

 our rarer British birds — could leave its winter resort in 

 Africa in the dusk of evening, and arrive at Heligoland — 

 where he spent so many years studying bird migration — 

 nine hours later. That is to say, it could travel 1600 geo- 

 graphical miles in a single night, at the astounding velocity 

 of 180 miles an hour ! According to another estimate of 

 his, curlews, godwits, and plovers crossed from Heligoland 

 to the oyster-beds lying to the eastward, a known distance of 

 rather more than four Enghsh miles, in one minute ; or at 

 the rate of over 240 miles an hour. Against such extravagant 

 estimates it is hardly necessary to bring rebutting evidence. 



43 



