ANIMAL FLIGHT lOI 



and bats and insects passing easily through the air from place 

 to place. From the very earliest times of which we have a 

 record and among all the human races one of the most strongly 

 marked of human yearnings has always been the desire to fly, 

 to be able like a bird to leave the earth and to soar higher and 

 higher until all earthly things are left behind. This desire to 

 fly is reflected in the folk-lore and stories of all peoples, and 

 to a greater or lesser extent in all religions. 



The most conspicuous soaring bird, the eagle, some variety 

 of which occurs almost everywhere, has been adopted as a 

 national, tribal or family emblem to a greater extent than 

 any other animal or object. You all have heard of the Amer- 

 ican eagle. He figures on the President's flag, on many of 

 our coins, sometimes on our postage stamps, on much of our 

 official letter paper, and on the caps of our army and navy 

 officers. We use the eagle to designate colonels in the army 

 and marine corps, and captains in the navy; and in the army 

 further for all "unattached" officers, and officers of the Gen- 

 eral Staff. Formerly our generals also wore the eagle, com- 

 bined with two stars. We used to call one of our coins the 

 "eagle," and more than one hundred of our towns and villages 

 have "eagle" in their names. 



While the eagle and the falcon are everywhere associated 

 in the public mind with noble and sublime ideas or aspirations, 

 the creatures that fly by night suggest to all peoples something 

 mysterious and unnatural, and give rise to feelings of awe and 

 dread. The owl is regarded wdth superstitious fear in many 

 countries, and always is a symbol of something either harmful, 

 or at least uncanny. He is feared or distrusted, but never 

 respected. We speak of people sometimes as "w^ise old owls," 

 though we never apply this term to those we really hold in 

 high regard. 



The bat is the most characteristic and conspicuous of night 

 ranging creatures, and in the day time completely disappears. 

 It is thus quite natural that in the minds of superstitious 

 peoples the bat should be the preeminent symbol of darkness 



