Feathers and Flight. 157 



liiiuls at the string. If they attempted to rise 

 with their tails to windward and mount into space 

 in that wa)', they would be under the same dis- 

 advantage that a child would be trying to bounce 

 a ball on soft sand instead of solid rock. Many 

 birds find the effort of rising the first few feet very 

 trying indeed if there is no wind to help them, 

 and sometimes cannot take wing at all off a level 

 surface. The Albatross, for instance, can soar for 

 days together in the blue vault of heaven with 

 perfect ease, but cannot rise off the deck of a ship 

 in calm weather. Some years ago a great tiock of 

 Gannets had the misfortune to get into a bay in 

 the south of England during a dead cahn, and the 

 p!)or birds, being un:d)le to rise, were rolled ashore 

 l>y a heavy sea i:i such numbers that one man 

 alone took away a cartload. 



Kestrel Hawks and l>uzzards love a l)reeze in 

 which to hover, because it enables them to steady 

 themselves with far less effort than a calm, and 

 thus to examine the ground below more leisurely 

 for prey. 



Some birds ily lor the mere pleasure of the 

 exercise, and others liardl}' ever take wing except 

 from necessity. Rooks indulge in airy waltzes 

 occasionally, and even somersaidts ; but Corn 

 Buntings are so lazy that Hying irom one telegraph 

 post to another appears to be such a great effort 

 that the}^ often trail their legs l)ehind them. 



During flight many birds' wings assume all sorts 



