RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 
77 
gale which blew from the north-west, was attracted by a 
loud cackling overhead ; from the awkward motion of their 
wings, he was certain they were not wild Ducks, and they 
seemed to him to he helped on as much by the wind as their 
own exertions. He next day heard that the duck-pond of a 
person in the neighbourhood had been deserted the morning 
before, about the time he saw them, by thirty Geese, which 
had all taken flight, and not been since heard of. 
An instance of uncommon flight, though not to the extent 
of the above, occurred not long ago in Yorkshire. A person 
had a large flock of Geese, which fed on high ground not 
visible from the house. They were lessened, as occasion 
required, to about six; these were fetched home, every night, 
for some weeks ; and very frequently, on seeing the house 
from the top of the hill, they would take wing, and fly 
homewards, making a circuit of about a mile. On one 
occasion they were on the point of alighting on a pond of 
water, near the next farm-house, instead of a smaller one 
near home ; they soon, however, discovered their mistake, 
and raised themselves in the air, to nearly as great a height 
as before, alighting on their own water ; and were there long 
before their driver, notwithstanding that he went mostly in 
a direct line. These flights were considered as particularly 
remarkable, because the Geese were at the time quite fat and 
heavy. We have a similar instance of a common tame Duck, 
in Hertfordshire, which was in the constant habit of taking 
flights, with the same power, and at the same height, as a 
Crow, or as if in its wild state. The people of the village 
were all aware of its singular propensity, asserting that it 
would often rise and take the circuit of a mile. 
As to our smaller species, there is scarcely a part of the 
wide ocean, in the usual route of navigators, over which some 
of the little land-birds have not been seen flitting, blown off, 
in many instances, possibly, from their native shores, by 
gales of wind, and no doubt often perishing in the waters, 
hut still leaving survivors enough to give evidence of their 
uncommon strength of wing. Thus our well-known cheerful 
little bird, the Tomtit (jParus major), has been met with in 
