BIRDS IN MANY LANDS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 466, 18 May 1912, Page 7

BIRDS IN MANY LANDS.

Which is the biggest bird in the world? ""The roc." answers the the small boy, with the assurance given by a recent trip with Sindbad in "The Arabian Nights." "Tin ?agle," thoughtlessly answers the average man. "The ostrich, asserts the scientist. If we accept mythology, the first answer is correct. If we mean the largest living bird, the ostrich, standing eight feet high, and weighing three hundred pounds, is far and away ahead of all competitors. It has only of late come into this post of honour, however, for a few centuries ago even its great bulk was ovcrshaddowed by the gigantic moa of New Zealand, which held its head eleven feet above the ground. Even if we restrict ourselves to the largest flying bird, the eagle would be some distance from the head of the list, contrary to public opinion. Three species would contest Tor this event —the wild turkey, the trumpeter swan, and the great bustard. The swan deserves second place, with a record weight of 251b., while the bustard leads the heavyweight flyers, one of these birds having turned the scale at 32It>. The widest spread of wings will at once be claimed by many for the bald eagle, but, while six or seven feet is the limit for this species, the condor of California stretches nine or ten, and the wandering albatross expands its wonderful pinions from 12 to 14 feet.

The sunbirds of the Old World are put forth by many as the tiniest ; but all of these appear grossly bulky in comparison with some of the humming birds. The smallest of the live hundred species of these winged gems is the Princess Helena humming bird of Cuba, which measures only two and a quarter inches from the bill to the tip of the tail. The nest, though aeatly and strongly built, is only Dne inch across, while the cavity itself in which the young Princess of Princesses hatch and arc reared is less than three-quarters of an inch in its diameter. Disregarding the jnormous piled mound of leaves and :lirt that is kicked together by the bush turkey of Australia as hardly worthy the title of nest, we decide on tht home of the fish hawk or osprey as the largest nest in the world. To a bulky mass of sticks and seaweed branch after branch is added throughout many years, until the long-suffering tree groans under a dozen cartloads of nesting material, and finally falls to earth, unable longer to bear up the great weight. The white fairy eggs of the Princess Helena hummer are two-tenths of an inch wide and less than three-tenths long. If we took 200 or more of these eggs we should have a fairsized hen's egg ; two dozen of these in turn, or 30,000 humming birds eggs, would be required to equal an ostrich egg, the largest of any living bird. In Madagascar have been found many fossil eggs of the giant extinct aepyornis, measuring nine by thirteen inches, equal in volume tc six ostrich eggs.

The contest of flight would lie between the large vultures, such as the condors, which, soaring a mile or more above the sea, drop down like a meteor at the promise of food, and the albatross, day after day, soarine scv marvellously over smooth seas and rough, sometimes gliding foi hours without a single perceptible movement of the wing. The poorest flyers, if we omit those which have wholly lost the power of raisinu themselves above the earth, are th< tinamou. These birds have wealwings, which by the most violent effort can support them only for a icv score yards, and as they have nc tail they cannot direct their Slights. Indeed, they sometimes start, llyiiv: straight upward, and, unable to sto;: themselves, ascend until exhausted, then fall headlong to earth. Tht bird of widest north and south range is the Arctic tern, one of thoss swallows of the sea, related to tin gulls. It is known to range to latitude 82 deg. north, and recently, or the Scottish Antarctic expedition, ar observer secured one of these bird: in 74 deg. south latitude, thus cover ing in its flight over !),000 miles oi 156 out of the 180 degrees hctwect the two poles.—"New York Tribune.'-'