Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-10-02
POWER OF FLIGHT IN BIRDS.
The Graceful Swallow, the swift Moving
 Humming Rird and Others.

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 Humming Rird and Others.
 How wonderful and beautiful Is the power of flight and yet from tho smallest insect that Is tossed about by tho gentle summer breeze to tho great golden eagle that is capable of carrying a young lamb to his eyrie all arc masters of the art
 4 largo portion of the living ami mai world has wings and oan use thom. When watching a swallows infinite power upon the wing, one foels like rophrasing the cry of Rich ard III, My kingdom for horse, " to- My kingdom for pair of wings"
 Perhaps among our most common birds the swallows are the most graceful and skillful of flight Be- fore n rain along our country roads the barn and white bellied swallows arc always to be seen cutting the air in graceful curves, now skimming the roads, now rising abruptly to sail over the stone wall and float out across some neighboring meadow. They love tho sea also and wing their way over its surface with mar vicious skill.
 The chimney swift surpasses in tho power of endurance even the swallows. Unoanny birds they are far moro like bats. Their flight Is not as graceful as the swallows, but in a way more cratic. They rest only in the ohimneys or hollow trees, even gathering the twigs for the construction of their nests while on tho wing. Their food also is taken when on fiight-in fact, the chim- ney swift's life Is spent in the heav- ems. Perpetual motion" must be their motto, for but few moments out of eaoh 24 hours are spent at rest in the ohimney's sooty depths.
 Tho opposite of the swallows and the swift's flight one might say, Is that of tho kingbird. Jerky, spas modic, ungraceful as it Is in the ex- treme, and yet powerful, for the kingbird among crows certainly de- serves his name. AS all true tyran- nide, he is an expert fly catcher and Is very deXterous and often absurd in pursuit. tumbling over himself in bis hurry to catch some dainty insect.
 When n robin crosses the sky so one can really see his flight, he is one of tho few birds that look as if they really were going somewhere. Direct even and steady are the char of the flight whom really on tho wing with some distant point in view.
 Tho cratic and wonderfully rapid | flight of the humming birds is mar velous, and tho human eye can only vaguely follow their winding course. | Such strength of wing for so tiny a body seems almost incredible. Their | southward from New England extends to South America.
 The phebe's flight Is very like that of the kingbirds, and his tum- blings when in pursuit of insects | are almost identical, but his long | flights do not denote such power, nor, l think, such rapidity.
 The wonderful feats of the carrier pigeons have become famous, and the distance that they cover in a given time is hardly to be believed. Each down beat of their wings looks as if they were flying in a denser at than air, so much power Is shown.
 The bats crazy movements in the evening twilight are absurd, full of plunges, turnings, twistings, rapid iappings and tumbles, and yet they seem to know where they are going, and most certainly do.
 The movements of hawk or eagle in the upper air arc graceful and What must the sensa- tion be of sailing about so easily in the heavensP Rising and falling, sailing and gliding, diving down with frightful speed, and yet the whole body is in perfect command. Boston Transcript.