Exhibit 3-5 in Birds, the Muscles That Pull the Wing

Essay

Exhibit 3-5 In birds, the muscles that pull the wing down, and thus cause the actual flight, are the "large pectorals." In the article, "Dimensional Relationships for Flying Animals," the author reports the following pectoral muscle weight in grams for birds of prey (Rapaces diurnes voiliers.)
-In the article referenced in Exhibit 3-5, the wing areas in square centimeters of gliding birds of prey are reported. Night hunters are distinguished from the birds that hunt during the daylight hours, and the wing areas for samples of each type of bird are displayed in the following table: a) Construct a comparative (back to back) stem & leaf plot for the wing area for the two types of birds. (b) Biologists speculate that since birds could be detected at a distance by their prey during the day, the species that hunt during the day should be smaller on average than those that hunt at night. Are the data as displayed in part (a) consistent with this theory? What specific aspects of the plot in part (a) support your answer?