THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 228.— December, 1895, 



THE SPEED OF HOMING PIGEONS. 



From the correspondence which has appeared in the last two 

 numbers of ' The Zoologist,' it will be seen that the statements 

 of Herr Gatke, in his work on Heligoland, respecting the rate of 

 speed in migratory birds, have awakened considerable interest 

 amongst ornithologists. We have already given reasons for 

 dissenting from certain of Herr Gatke's estimates, believing 

 them in some cases to be exaggerated, and in others to be 

 unsupported by evidence. The species to whose estimated rate 

 of speed we particularly took exception (p. 378) were the Hooded 

 Crow, the Bluethroat, and the American Golden Plover. 



In view of Sir George Cayley's precise calculation that a 

 Rook usually flies at the rate of about 35 feet per second, or 24 

 miles per hour,* it is impossible to accept Herr Gatke's state- 

 ment that the speed of the Hooded Crow (so nearly related as it 

 is to the Rook in size, structure, and form of wing) can be 108 

 miles per hour, or more than four times as great. 



Equally impossible is it to accept, as Herr Gatke's does, the 

 statement (op. cit. p. 64) made fifty years ago, which credits a 

 pigeon with a speed of 100 geographical miles per hour ; 

 for it has been well ascertained in recent years, by careful 

 experiment, that the rate at which a Homing Pigeon flies 



* "Aerial Navigation," in ' Nicholson's Journ. Nat. Phil.,' xxiv. p. 164, 

 quoted by Prof. Newton, 'Dictionary of Birds,' art. " Flight." 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX. DEC. 1895. 2 M 



