158 Our Bird Friexds. 



of curious positions, as shown in our illuslnition 

 opposite of Blackheaded Gulls on the Thames Em- 

 bankment m winter time. As a matter of fact, 

 they can make their tips meet over their backs or 

 beneath them, thus completing a circk\ although 

 they do not indulge in this kind of gvmnastic 

 exercise when flying about on the ordinary business 

 of their lives. A Seagull's wings luwe been photo- 

 graphed in twelve different positions in a second, 

 and the picture on page l(jl, whicli represents an 

 enlarged section of a ])hotograpli of Terns in the 

 air, shows several different wing positions. 



In alighting, souie species depress their sj)rr;i(l- 

 out tails and work their wings Avith the shoulders 

 up and the tips poimiug towai'ds tbc ground, ;ind 

 as soon as tbey have touched the earth fold tlicni 

 gracefully to their sides: whilst others extend them 

 straight out with their tips })()inting skxwards. The 

 picture on page !():> of an Osprcy in the act of 

 alighting on a dead stuni]) above its e}'rie shows 

 this l)ird's peculiar manner of stopping. 



What has often struck me as being very mai-- 

 Ycllous about the flight of my feathered friends is 

 their quickness of sight and judgment. An old 

 Cock Spari'ow having a wing stretch of eight or 

 nine inches will lly between two garden palings 

 considerably less than three inches apart without 

 appearing to slacken his pace, and a flock of 

 Starlings, thousands strong, will alight upon a tree 

 until its branches are borne down by their weight, 



