Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-07-25
THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.
THE ALMOST INCREDIBLE SWIFTNESS
WITH WHICH THEY COVER
LONG DISTANCES.

THE ALMOST INCREDIBLE SWIFTNESS
WITH WHICH THEY COVER
! LONG DISTANCES.
From the ST. James Gazette.
Few questions in natural history are SO
fascinating as that which concerns the
power and speed and flight of birds and
insects, and none yield more startling
results.
| OF all British birds none is so beautiful
nor so secluded in its habits as the king
fisher. Its low arrow-like flight, as it
| darts like streak of azure, green, and
gold, is familiar to every angler He
hears it far down stream; it comes under
the old ivied bridge, passes like a flash,
and is gone-hOw quickly cOrrespOn-
dent has been fortunate enough to find
out, or at least approximately. He was
travelling on the Great Western Railway,
which between Pangbourne and Reading
runs parallel with and close to the Thames.
As the train approached the river king
fisher started from the bank and flew
along the river for nearly mile Mr.
George Rooper watched it the whole dis
tance, and its relative position with win
dow never varied yard, the bird flying
at exactly the same pace at which the
train travelled, and which the observer
had just previously aScertained to be fifty
five miles an hour.
This is about half the speed at which
the elder duck flies, as, when fairly on the
wing, it makes upward of 120 miles an
hour. The rapidity with which all birds
of the plOver kind fly is well known, and
golden plOver have been seen midway be-
tween Hawaii and the mainland. An
officer in Donald Currie's line recently
brought home with him specimen of
the st. Helena Waxbill, which he caught
when on watch on the bridge of the
Grantully Castle. AT the time the near
est land was distant 1000 miles, and the
captive was so distressed that it allowed
the officer to capture it.
The power of pigeons on the wing is
prOyerbial. In 1850, on the 9th of OctO-
ber, Sir John Ross dispatched a pair of
young pigeons from Assistance Bay, a
little west of Wellington Sound, and on
the 18th of October a pigeon made its ap-
pearance at the dOvecot in Ayrshire,
Scotland, from whence Sir John had two
pairs he took out. The distance direct
between the two places is 1000 miles,
An instance is on record of pigeon fly
ing twenty-three miles in eleven minutes;
and another flew from ROuen to Ghent-
$50 miles an hour and half. An in
teresting incident of the flight is that of
a pigeon, which in 184l fell wounded and
exhausted at Vauxhall Station, then the
terminus of the Southwestern Railway.
1t bore a message to the effect that it was
one of the three dispatched to the Duke
of Wellington from IchabOe Island, 2,O0O
miles away. The message was immedi-
ately sent on to his Grace, and by him
acknowledged. In pigeon competition
some years ago the winning bird flew
from Ventnor to Manchester, POS miles,
at the rate of fifty miles an hour.
The following is still more interesting,
as it entailed race between birds and
insects. A pigeon fancier at Hamme, in
Westphalia, made wager that dozen
bees liberated three miles from their hive
would reach it in better time than doZ-
en- pigeons would reach their cote from
the same distance The competitors were
given wing at Bhynhern, village nearly
a league from Hamme, and the first bee
finished quarter of a minute in advance
of the first pigeon; three other bees reach
ed the goal before the second pigeon, the
main body of both detachments finishing
almost simultaneously an instant or two
later. The bees, too, may be said to have
been handicapped in the race, having
been rolled in flour before starting, for
purposes of Identification.
Birds of prey, with their Scythe-like
sweep of wing, are not less remarkable
for swiftness than lOng-sustained flight.
Many of the falcon attain to hundred
and fifty miles an hour, while peregrine
which belonged to Henry ", of France,
escaped from Fountainebleau, and in "a
hours later was found at Malta, a distance
of not less than !, $50 miles-a velocity of
sixty miles an hour, supposing the falcon
to have been increasingly on the wing.
But as such birds never fly by night, and
allowing the day to be at the longest, its
fight was, perhaps, equal to seventy-five
miles an hour. The best speed of a rail
way train is only little more than half
the velocity of the golden eagle, the flight
of which often attains to the rate of 140
miles an hour. OF all birds, the condor
mounts the highest into the atmosphere.
Humboldt describes the flight of this bird
in the Andes to be at least 10000 feet
above the level of the sea. Upon one Oc
snipe in two, with such strength and
speed did it strike down its prey Spar
row hawks and merlins have not unfre-
quenty been known to crash through
thick plate glass windows in pursuit of
prey or at Gagged birds.
Swallows were long supposed to be the
fastest birds that fly, but this is by no
means the case. They attain to an i'm
mense speed in their rushes, but are
among the most fatigable of birds. There
is well authenticated instance of
swallow having flown twenty miles in IL
minutes. The speed of swallow flying
swift and straight is about 90 miles an
hour, its ordinary course 60 miles. The
swift easily attainS to 100 miles, and
seems quite tireless ON the wing. The
Hobby falcon, which is a summer immi-
grant to Britain, hawks for dragon flies
among the swiftest of insects-which it
seizes with the foot, and devOurs in the
air. 1t also kills swifts, larks, doves, and
lin Bulgaria) more rarely, bee birds.
Leeuwenholk relates an exciting chase,
which he beheld in menagerie about
100 feet long, between a swallow and
dragon fly (Mordella). The insect flew
with incredible speed and wheeled with
such address that the swallow, notwith-
SIdlluiilS lJS uIiilOSJ clIOiIo CoihPiOIOig
failed to Overtake and capture it. Cha
brier states that the male of the silkwOrm
moth travels upward of 100 miles day,
and it has been computed that the COM
mon house fly, in ordinary flight makes
500 strokes per second, and advances 20
feet; but that rate of speed, if the insect
be alarmed, may be increased six or seven
fold, so that under certain circumstances it
can outstrip the fleetest race horse. Every
one, when riding on warm summer day,
must have been struck with the crowd of
flies which buzz about his horses ears,
even when the animal is urged to its fas-
test PAGES, and it is no uncommon thing
to see a bee or wasp endeavOring to get
in at the window of a railway train in