88 
RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT* 
they can pass through the air, and their capacity for 
continuing on the wing without being fatigued. 
Few people, we believe, are aware of the very great 
rapidity of a bird’s flight, and many will doubtless 
he surprised when they are informed that even our 
slower birds can most of them make their way at 
the rate of thirty miles an hour, without any ex- 
traordinary effort ; but that, if pressed, they can 
considerably exceed that speed. There is an easy 
way of ascertaining with tolerable accuracy the rate of 
a bird’s flight, which from experience we can recom- 
mend as equally amusing and interesting. It is 
this : — 
Suppose any bird, a Partridge for instance, rises 
in the middle of a stubble, and flies in a straight 
line over a hedge ; all the observer has to do, is to 
note by the second’s hand of a watch (and those 
who have not second’s-hand watches inay easily 
learn, at least sufficiently for practical purposes, to 
count them), the number of seconds between the 
moment of the bird’s rising and that of its topping 
the hedge ; and then ascertain the distance between 
the point from whence it rose and the hedge, by 
stepping and counting the number of paces ; when, 
supposing each pace to be a yard, we have a 
common Pule of Three sum. .Thus, if a Partridge, 
in three seconds, flies one hundred yards, how many 
yards will it fly in 3600 seconds, or one hour ? or 
seconds yards seconds 
as 3 : 100 : : 3600 : to the number of yards 
required, which v 7 ill be 3 - 600 * 1QQ or 120,000 yards, 
which will amount to (as there are 1760 yards in a 
mile) about sixty-eight miles an hour. 
