RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 
93 
before, about the time he saw them, by thirty Geese, 
which had all taken to flight, and not been since 
heard of. 
An instance of uncommon flight, though not to 
th£ 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, dis- 
covered 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 pos- 
