Abstract
1. 1. EKG (electrocardiogram) and EMG (electromyogram) measurements from one of the pectoral muscles have been recorded on pigeons flying freely in a wind tunnel. 2. 2. The pectoral muscles in the pigeon were activated several times per wing beat and thereby performed short tetanic contractions during flight. 3. 3. The heart rate during rest was 3·3/sec. It increased to 11/sec after 1 min flight and the maximal rate, 11·7/sec, was obtained in flights longer than 2 min. 4. 4. The ratio between wing and heart beat rate was 1 :1·65 in this study. However, by using wing beat rate data from unstrained pigeons (Pennycuick, 1968) the ratio was found to be close to 1 : 2. 5. 5. Only 28 per cent of the observed heart beats coincided with the activation of the pectoral muscles, which indicates that the bird co-ordinates the timing of these organs in such a way that they are activated relatively few times simultaneously.
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