Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-07-13
VERY FAST TRAVELLING.
THE ALMOST INCREDXBLE SWEETNESS
 OF BIRDS AND INSECTH.
Pigeons Cover 2,O0O Miles fu Seven Days-The Elder Ducks Grcat Record Of I2O Miles an Hour-Bees and Pig. cons Race, and tho Former Win, Bat With Little to Spare.

or 12O Miles an Hour-Bees and Pig
 cons Race, and tho Former Wtus Bat
 With Little to Spare.
 Few questions in natural history are 60 fascinating as that which concerns the power and speed of flight of birds and insects, and none yields more start ling results.
 Of all British birds none Is so beauti- tul or so secluded in it's habits as the xingfisher. It's low arrow-like flight. as 1t 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 Hash, and is gone-how quickly a cor respondent of the St. James Gazette has been fortunate enough to find out, or at least approximately. He was travelling on the Great Western railway. which be- tween Pangbourne and Reading runs parallel with and close to the Thames. As the train approached the river a kingf1sher started from the bank snd flew along the river for nearly mile. MT. George Rooper watched it the whole distance, and it's relative position with the window never varied ayard, the bird flying at exactly the same pace at which the train travelled. and which the ob- server had just previously ascertained to be fifty-five miles an hour.
 This is about half the speed at which the cider duck flies, as, when fairly on the wing it makes upward of 120 miles on hour. The rapidity with which all birds of the plover king fly is we'll known, and golden blower have been seen midway between Hawaii and the line recently brought homo with him a specimen of the St. Helena waxbill which he caught when on watch On the 1 bridge of the Grantully Castle. At the time the nearest 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 proverbial. In 1850, on the 9th of 1 October, Sir John Ross despatched pair of young pigeons from Assistance bay, a little west of Wellington sound, and on the 18th of October pigeon made it's ap- pearance at the dovecot in Ayrshire, Scotland from whence Sir John had the two pairs he took out. Tho distance di- rect between the two places Is 2.o0o pigeon flying twenty-three miles in eleven minutes; and another flew from Jchaboe island, 2,000 miles away. The message was immediately sent on to his grace, and by him acknowledged. In a pigeon competition some years ago tho winning bird flew from Ventor to Man.
 chester POS miles-at the rate of fifty five miles an hour.
 The following Is still moro interesting, as it entailed race between birds and insects. A pigeon fancier of Hamme, in Westphalia, made a wager that a dozen bees liberated three miles from their hive would reach 1t in better time than a dozen pigeons would reach their cote from the same distance. The competi- tors were given wing at Rhynhern, 6 village nearly a league from Hamme, and the first bee finished quarter of 0 minute in advance of the first pigeon ; three other bees reached the goal before the second pigeon; the main body of
 both detachments finishing almost sim
 ultaneouSly 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 pur-
 poses of identification.
 Birds of prey, with their scythe-like
 sweep of wing, are not less remarkable
 for swiftness than Iong-sustained flight.
 Many of the falcons attain to 15O miles
 an hour; while peregrine which be-
 longed to Henry " of France escaped
 hours after was found in Malta, a dis tance of not less than 1,53O miles-a
 velocity of nearly Sixty-seven miles an
 houH supposing tho falcon to have been unceasingly on the wing. But as such birds never fly by night, and allowing the 1 OSAy tO Ut Ut Unc AouSc5C, ACS AlSuG WdS
 perhaps equal to seventy-f1ve miles an hour. The best speed of @ railroad train is only little moro than half the veloc-
 tty of h golden eagle, the flight of which
 Often attains to the rate of LAO miles an hour. Of all birds the condor mounts the highest into the atmosphere. Hum. boldt describes the flight of this bird in the Andes to be at least 20, ,OOO feet above the level of the sea. Upon one occasion
 falcon was observed to cut a snipe in two, with such strength and speed did il
 strike down it's prey. Sparrow hawks
 and merlins have not unfrequently beer ) known to crash through thick plate-glass windows in pursuit of prey or at cageG animals.
 Swallows were long supposed to be the fastest birds that fly; but this Is by n< , means the case. They attain to an i'm. r mense speed in their rushes, but art , among the most fatigable of birds There Is well-authenticated instance O.
 a swallow having flown twenty miles 1T
 thirteen minutes. The speed of swal
 low flying straight and swift Is abou
 course sixty miles. The swift easily at f tains to 200 miles and seems quite tire
 less on the wing. The Hobby falcon which Is a summer migrant to Britain t hawks for dragon flies-among the swift , est of insects-which it seizes with tn, 1OOD duO OoVOuiS III Uuc StlF. It alSO kllls sWifts, larks, doves, and Gin Bulgaria s rarely, bee-birds."
 s Leenwenholk relates an exciting chase
 which he beheld in Q menagerie abou
 100 feet long, between a swallow and l dragon fly (Mordella). The insect fle1 2 with incredible speed and wheeled witt . such address that the swallow notwith standing it's utmost efforts, completel failed to overtake and capture it. Cha hr4Ar ofataS that tha rnaIo nf tho c}lL
 worm moth travels upward of 100 mile
 g. day, and 1t has been computed tha the common house fly, in ordinar : flight, makes 600 strokes per second a rase of speed, if the insect be alarmed
 may be increased six or seven fold, s that under certain circumstances it ca l outstrip the fleetest race horse. Ever r one when riding on warm summer day
 must have been struck with the crowd ( b flies which buzz about his horses ear. even when the animal is urged to it's fas | est paceS and it Is no uncommon thin