MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
21 
much less, and in the longest flight of which I can find a record, that of 
a pigeon which flew from Pensacola, Florida, to Fall River, Mass., 
fifteen and one-half days were consumed in covering the 1,183 miles, 
the average speed being seventy-six miles per day. 
In experiments tried with swallows in France it is claimed that one 
swallow flew 160 English miles in ninety minutes, giving a velocity of 
106 miles an hour, hut this record is open to serious question. 
Audubon estimated the speed of Passenger Pigeons, our own Wild 
Pigeon, at fifty, miles per hour, which is probably within the limit; yet 
his estimate involved several factors no one of which was absolutely 
known. He found rice in the crops of pigeons and from its condition 
“judged” that it had been eaten six hours before. He assumed that 
the nearest place at which it could have been obtained was in Carolina, 
300 to 400 miles distant! 
An Albatross marked with its latitude and longitude is said to have 
been released from a ship in one part of the Pacific Ocean and captured 
twelve days later by another vessel at a distance of 3,150 miles. Even 
if true, this only required the bird to travel 262 miles per day, less than 
eleven miles per hour. 
Wild geese, and especially wild ducks, have been credited with a 
speed of nearly 100 miles an hour, yet in two cases where it was possible 
to measure the speed of flocks passing a given point, it was found that 
the geese flew at the rate of but 44.3 miles per hour, and the ducks at 
approximately forty-eight miles per hour, and in neither case did the 
height exceed 1,000 feet. These measurements were made at the Blue 
Hill Meteorological Observatory at Milton, Mass., by trained observers 
with the instruments used daily in determining the velocity of clouds.* 
In 1893 Dr. Hubert L. Clark (one of our own members) noted two 
buffle-head ducks flying along the Potomac River parallel with a train 
on which he was a passenger. The train was found to have a speed 
of about thirty-seven miles an hour, and the ducks were unable to keep 
up with it! 
Herr Gatke’s statement that the American Golden Plover flies at the 
rate of over 200 miles an hour is based on data which he misunderstood 
or misrepresented. There is absolutely no proof that any of the plover 
pass from Labrador to Brazil at one flight, nor do we know even approx¬ 
imately the time taken for the trip as performed. Presumably they 
do make flights of 300 or 400 miles without rest, since they are often 
seen passing Bermuda without resting, and have probably flown con¬ 
tinuously since leaving the North American coast; yet should they tire 
there is no reason whatever why they should not rest upon the sea at 
any time except during storm, and it is well known that in case of 
heavy storms thousands of them do alight on the Massachusetts coast 
as well as on Bermuda, while the species lingers regularly for weeks 
on some of the West Indian Islands. 
Most shore birds take to the water readily and swim buoyantly and 
easily. Flocks of sandpipers have been seen to alight in the water when 
far out of sight of land; and yet there can be no doubt that many of 
our land birds, which could hot rest on the water at all, often fly 300 
or 400 miles across the water without serious fatigue. We have no 
* Clayton, Science N. Ser.*V. pp. 26, 585-586. 
