Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1915-06-24
Thursday June a. 1915
Speed in Flight.

Falcons are said TO be the most rapid
flyers; some varieties fly two hundred
feet a second, according TO the best es-
innate.
Waterfowl, too, have great powers OF
flight. The canvasback duck covers from
130to l60fee second. The blue-winged
teal and the green-winged teal, the blue
bill and the redheads are only a little
slower. Mallards, pintails. wood ducks,
black ducks, and others can easily fly
faster than a mile minute. Even such
large birds as cranes, swans, pelicanS,
and geese can fly at speed OF more than
a hundred feet second.
The speed OF waterfowl has often been
measured with great accuracy. Two
men take positions on duck pass a
measured distance apart. The first man
carries stop watch and gun, the Sec
ond, gun only. As the fowl pass the
first blind the timer shoots in order to
frighten the birds into full speed, and
starts his watch. As the ducks pass the
second blind the man there fires shot,
and the timer stops his watch. The usual
length of the course is quarter ola mile,
although a mile "track" is sometimes
used.
Birds with short, square wings, like
The kingbird, quail, and ruited grouse,
are sprinters; those with wide stretch
of wing are distance runners" Birds
OF the first class attain their sudden bursts
of speed through their very rapid wing
stroke birds OF the second class have
sustained powers of flight, but get under
way more slowly.
All the gallinaceous fowl are spriuters.
They take wing like bullet; their wings
make loud, whirring sound. The quail
or the ruffed grouse can gain full momen-
tum within sixty feet of rising; the wings
beat from five 10 seven times a second.
The quail covers from forty-five to fifty
feet the first second away from the gun /;
his wings flash like rapidly revolving
wheel. The wings OF the ruffed grouse
roar until the sound can be heard two
hundred yards away.
Heavy fowl, like swans and Canada
geese, have long wings and deliberate
stroke they must invariably rise against
the wind. AS the goose rises from the
water he seems TO be both padding and
flappiEg, and he keeps that up for twenty
or thirty yards before he fairly launches
into the air; the swan needs fifty yards
TO "get his wings under him." flam-
ingos, cranes, and herons rise against the
wind also, but their long legs enable them
TO spring ten feetinto the air al one bound.
These large birds make only a couple
OF wing strokes a second when first TAX
ing 10 flight, but when under full momen-
tum the strokes become more rapid. The
principle is the same as that which ap-
plies to an oarsman in starting his boat ::
the quicker the craft is moving, the less
resistance there is TO the oar and the
faster is the stroke. Aswan cannot reach
maximum speed in less than $50 yards
after springing from the water; a goose
requires nearly one hundred yards, and
duck, about so yards.
The iacksnipe has avery peculiar flight.
When he first springs, if he endeavors TO
travel across the wind, it gets under his
long, curved wings, unbalances him, and
forces him TO tack about in order 10 re-
gain his balance. When the iacksnipe
goes straight upwind, or flies at full speed,
the zigzag movement is moi noticeable.
The wings OF a iacksnipe are very long
and strong compared with the weight ot
his body, and he simply lacks "ballast." "