The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-11-09
RAPID MOVEMENTS.
The Fastest Speed Attained by Birds and
Predatory Fishes.

RAPID MOVEMENTS.
The Fastest Speed Attained by Birds and
Predatory Fishes.
THE Rocky Mountain swift is proba-
bly, the fastest flying bird in the coun-
try" said traveller, who has been
spending good part of his time among
the Rockies. II consider myself q
pretty good shot on the wing, but in
nearly every instance before l can get
my gun in readiness to shoot it is out
of range and gone. It's flyer and no
mistake"
Comparatively little is known about
the exact speed OF birds. Every body
almost has observed the lightning-like
velocity with which the falcon sweeps
down on his prey. but no record is OBJ
tainable Of the speed with which the
descent is made. An instance is known
however. where falcon was loosed at
the Canary Islands, and was captured
sixteen hours afterward at Teneriffe.
The distance between these places is
about $50 miles in round numbers. and
a speed OF four ffths of q mile min
ute was r1ade.
The lest record of the homing pigeon
In ea,.iy times was made in 1928. Fifty
Sly pigeons were liberated at London
at asa in the morning. At 1925 they
were at Liege, Belgium. This would
give a speed Of sixty-five feet a second,
or thirteen-seveuteenths of mile in
mi In ~ oh In, oo<
number OF birds took part was the ma
tional Belgian race. when 1874 pigeons
were liberated at one time at Morceus,
south OF Bordeaux. at 4:12 in the morn
ing. The first OF the lot arrived home
at Brusklo at 4:37 p. m. The distance
between these two places is about $40
miles. The rate Of speed, notwith-
standing the long distance, being about
the same as that made by the birds
flying from London to Liege.
The fastest flyers are probably the
swift, OF which the common chimney
swift, or swallow. as it is enormously
called. is typical example, though it
Is not the swiftest Of its family. The
common black crow, which may be
seen in large numbers in the country
in the spring and which gives the
farmers SO much trouble about corn
planting time, is comparatively slow in
speed. About twenty miles an hour is
, the highest speed which it ever attains.
The American eagle is of course
among the fastest OF fast birds. Three
minutes after he leaves the earth in his
upward fight he is lost to view. Sup
posing the spread of his wing to be
four feet, and the angle Of vision one
minute. a mathematical calculation
shows that this would give him speed
ofseventy-six feet second; very near.
ly a mile minute.
The speed of fishes is, on the other
hand, almost an unknown quantity.
being as Prof. G. Brown Good says,
very difficult to measure. IF you
could get fish," said Prof. Goodc,
and put him in trough of water one
thousand feet long and start him at one
end and make him swim to the other
without stopping the information could
be easily obtained, but fish are unintelli-
gent and they won't do this. Esti-
mates Of the speed of fish consequently
are only Appropriated, and more or
less founded on guessing. You can
tell, however, at glance whether fish
is built for speed or not. A fast fish
looks trim and pointed, like q yacht.
It's head is conical shaped. and its fms
fit down close to its body, like knife
blade into its handle. Fish with large
heads, bigger than their bodies, and
with short, stubby fins are of course
built for slow motion"
wv hat are the fastest fishes?'
''The predatory fish, those which live
on prey. are the fastest swimmers. The
food fishes are generally among the
slowest and are consequently easily
captured. Their loss is recon pensed.
however, by the natural law which
makes them very prolific in reproduc-
ton. Dolphins have been known to
swim around an ocean steamer, and ii
is quite safe to say that their speed IL
twenty miles an hour, but it may be
twice as much. The bonito is a fast
swimming fish. just what its speed i:
do not know. The head Of the goose
fish is very large-twenty times as big
as its body. 1t moves about very little
and swims at the bottom OF the ocean.
The Spanish mackerel is one OF the fast
est of the food fishes. Its body is cone
shaped and as smooth as FURNISHED
metal. Its speed is as matchless as the
dolphin, and in motion it cuts the water
like yacht. Washington Post.
Museum OF Princess Carriers.