Evening star., 1901-02-25

perches for them on shore, to which he
| birds return at night to roost. So regular
| are they in this respect that the natives
| have more or less regular carrier post
| between islands, these birds bearing the
| messages. With this system In use, the
| carrier speed of the frigate bird would
J be easy to determine
! In calculating the speed of birds, only
! the sustained flights are admissible. The
| swoOp of an eagle after its prey or the fran
! tie burst of a partridge to escape it's talons
| is not considered Fair illustrations of
| bird speeds often are afforded by chance
| to the passenger on railway trans. 1t is
| no unusual thing for crows, doves, prairie
| chickens. quails and hawks to head with a
/ train and try to keep pace with It.
In most cases train running thirty-five
miles an hour will pass any of these birds
| after a few minutes. Perhaps the wood
| dove comes nearer to holding his own than
do any Of the others. The crow Is dis
| tanced most rapidly. A flock IF mallards
or teal, under full headway. will pass
| train going at thrty-fve or forty miles an
hour
A Table of Speeds.
/ From these observations and from the
conservative figures of Audubon and
| others, a modified table OF speeds may be
attempted. Observing the wild pigeon Of
America, the naturalist Audubon ascribed
to 1t speed of nearly sixty miles an hour
| His figures were based upon the condition
of rice found In the crops of birds he had
shot. The nearest feeding ground for them
was in North Carolina, 800 miles away,
and judging by the condition of The grain
eaten by the birds, it had been in their
crops about six hours This estimate,
however, has been questioned as some
one, considering the long flight Of the
fowls, makes the point that the exertion
must have retarded the ordinary processes
of digestion.
Placing the flight of the passenger pigeon
at fifty miles an hour, authority is found
for the following comparative table:
Swallow, 65; martin, 60; passenger pig
con, 80; teal, so; mallard, 40; canvasDack
40; wild goose, 40; elder duck 40; blue
rock pigeon, IS; wood dove, 50; pheasant,
IS: prairie chicken, 30; quail, 80: crow, %.
With the pheasant, prairie chicken and
quail their flights are never more than
temporary bursts of speed. The first two
! rarely fly to exceed half mile, while the
quail seldom exceeds 200 yards. Because
of its short flights. too. figures on the
hawk family difficult to get.
In determining the speed of birds, M.
Marey's Photographic gun has been found
| to serve admirably 1t is pointed In such a
! way that 1t focuses on the bird, taking half
| dozen negatives in many seconds.
| When these are developed and comparisons
made between the size of the photographs
and the size of the bird, the distance flown
| by the bird in second is easily deter
mined.
Another plan Is to release the bird on a
sandy tract while the sun is clear and over
head Lines measured off on the sand
and stop watches held on the shadow of
| the bird as 1t skins over the ground. With
| observers at different points to mark the
| intersection Of these shadows, perfect ac-
curacy in timing flights may be assured.
To the average observer of the flight of
birds everything is deceptive. To COM
pare the flight of a large bird with small
er one is especially SO. The cormorant CT
| the seacoast seems to be slow flier, yet
he does mile in minute and ten sec
Onds. The honey bee seems to travel like
a bullet, yet it takes him two minutes to
fly one mile. The humming bird does not
fly as fast many slow Tapping birds of
ungainly bulk The quail appears to get
away more rapidly than does the mallard,
but he does not do it,
For the naturalist or the orni:hoiogical
| body which shall first give to he world a
comprehensive. accurate table of compari-
| son of the flight of birds of America there
is virtually fallow field, and its interest
TO the world will not be questioned.