84 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



thing to see a goose, while walking on a common, spiead 

 out its wings to their full extent, and begin to flap them 

 about with great violence, and yet the bird is not thereby 

 moved an inch from the ground — a circumstance that, 

 without inquiry into the cause, seems contrary to what 

 might have been anticipated. 



By observing the difference between this ground-flying 

 — if I may call it so — of the goose and the actual rising 

 of a pheasant, fcr example, into the air, one may arrive 

 at the reason why the goose does not, while the pheasant 

 does, ascend. The goose, it may be remarked, keeps her 

 wings spread both in the upward and downward motion, 

 and, consequently, the resistance of the air in the first case 

 will press her body downwards rather than upwards ; 

 while, as her evident intention is not to rise above the 

 ground, she forcibly expels the air from her air-cells, as 

 may be inferred from the screaming always uttered on 

 those occasions, and caused, one has reason to believe, by 

 the forcible expulsion of the air. Her body is thus ren- 

 dered specifically heavier, and, consequently, resists the 

 upward impulse given by the downward motion of the 

 wings. The pheasant, on the other hand, instead of ex- 

 pelling the air, takes a deep inspiration, increasing the size 

 of the body as much as possible, inflating at the same time 

 the wing feathers and bulging them outwards without 

 separating their tips from the sides. While taking deep 

 inspirations he may be observed also several times rising 

 on tiptoe and puffing out and balancing his body, to feel 

 whether he has thrown enough air into the bones and 

 feathers to float him along. He then crouches back in 

 order to give additional force to his spring, and forthwith 

 leaps up into the air, at the same time rapidly raising his 

 wings from the sides, but keeping the individual feathers 

 close together, like a folded fan, which he takes care not 

 to open till he begins to bring them down. For this 

 purpose he spreads them out to theii utmost extent, and 

 then, striking the air with all his force, its resistance 

 pushes him upwards, and he bounds aloft towards his tree- 

 perch, or wherever else he wishes to go. 



The same series of motions — first raising the folded 



