230 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



''How? Did you ever see a bird flap its tail?" 



*'Yes," the boy answered, unexpectedly; "the 

 Pipit and the Palm Warbler do. So does the 

 Teeter." 



''The Pipit and the Yellow Palm Warbler," 

 came the correction, "wag their tails, they do not 

 flap them. The Teeter or Spotted Sandpiper 

 teeters his whole body, not only his tail. No, boy, 

 you're wrong. A bird doesn't use his tail for 

 flight, but for steering. 



' ' Think for a minute of the way birds fly. Birds 

 which make a straight, fast flight, like Ducks or 

 Bob-Whites, have short tails. Birds that find 

 their food in the air, and which, consequently, dart 

 from side to side or wheel this way and that, need 

 a large steering apparatus. Hence you find that 

 the Swallows and Flycatchers have long tails. 

 The Arctic Tern, the world's champion long-dis- 

 tance flyer, which needs every aid to flight, has an 

 especially long tail. Birds which drop from a 

 height on half-closed wings and have to stop them- 

 selves suddenly, like Eagles, Hawks and AVliip- 

 Poor-Wills, have large broad tails which they can 

 spread out, thus forming an effective brake. 

 Why, Shan, you could spend years in studying the 

 adaptation of birds' tails alone. 



