RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 
75 
insects which the horse puts up in its course over the grass, 
sometimes leisurely keeping at an equal pace, then shooting 
ahead, and not unfrequently actually flying round the rider 
in wide circles, with an ease and facility betraying neither 
effort nor labour in so doing. 
The flight of the common Swallow has been computed at 
90 miles, that of the Swift has been conjectured to he nearly 
180 miles per hour. We can scarcely, indeed, calculate or 
limit the speed which can he produced by the effort of a 
wing’s vibrations. That a small insect can with ease accom- 
plish forty or fifty miles an hour, and probably much more, 
we know to he a fact, from our own experience on the Liver- 
pool and Manchester Railroad; for, when rolling along, at 
the rate of about thirty miles an hour, we saw bees and flies, 
sometimes hovering round the carriages, sometimes settling, 
then, when disturbed, flying to the right or left, in an 
irregular course, hut still keeping up, without the slightest 
appearance of extra exertion ; and often when tired of con- 
tinuing with the train, shooting forward, and in an instant 
leaving us far behind, and this, too, in opposition to a fresh 
breeze heading them. 
Another mode of ascertaining the flight of birds has been 
by Carrier Pigeons. These are a particular breed, which 
can he so trained, that when carried to great distances from 
the place of their usual abode, and turned out, they will find 
their way hack. A short time ago, fifty-six of these birds 
were brought over from a part of Holland where they are 
much attended to, and turned out from London about half- 
past four in the morning : they all reached their dove-cotes 
at home by noon ; but one favourite Pigeon, called Napoleon, 
arrived about a quarter after ten o’clock, having performed 
the distance of 300 miles at the rate of above fifty miles an 
hour, supposing he lost not a moment, and proceeded in a 
straight line ; but as they usually wheel about in the air for 
some time before they start off', and then probably deviate 
more or less from the direct course, this first bird must have 
flown, most likely, at a much quicker rate ; of which we have 
an instance which occurred at the fair of Ballinasloe in 
