424 THE EMPIRE OF THE AIR. 



C()ini!i<i to a rest is always a serious business for a large bird, and 

 seems to become more so the heavier they are. (leiierally they manage 

 to face the wind, and thus to extinguish in part their velocity. A 

 l>igeou witliout experience, alighting with tail to the wind, is generally 

 ujiset and tumbled over. In a state of nature, a wild bird knowing 

 his business perfectly, never misses making a safe landing. When 

 the wind is high, the heavier birds of large surface perform wonders 

 in coming to a rest. An eagle alights with incredible lightness; the 

 shock is no greater than that due to a 4-inch fall. 



When there is no wind, the winged experts who dislike to be jarred 

 adopt another way. They glide ui)ward, the steeper the slant the bet- 

 ter, and by thus opi)osing gravity to speed they completely extinguish 

 the inertia of their motion, rising as high as may be required before 

 conung to rest. 



When man comes to experiment with an aerial apparatus the bird's 

 mode of alighting will needs be studied a outrancc. The man may add 

 a lot of embellishments, such as elastic nets, beds of straw, suspended 

 cords with elastic connections, rings for attachment, watery beds for 

 floating machines, etc. 



The act of alighting is the terror of all winged creatures. There is 

 especially one class Avhich dreads (and with reason) even the smallest 

 fall; these are the waders. Therefore do they jiossess great propor- 

 tional Aving surface, which perhaps may be intended to allow them to 

 come to rest without the risk of breaking their long legs. Happy are 

 the birds which alight ui^on the water. The reader doubtless has seen 

 a swan come down to his liquid bed; it is a striking spectacle; they 

 plow deep furrows with their palmed feet; the jets of water and the 

 foam which they raise with great fuss attracts attention forcibly. 

 This is the mode of coming down, simple and i)ractical; which num 

 must ponder well, and try to imitate. - - - 



OBSERVATIONS OF BIRDS. 



I give in the following pages some data concerning birds, which, 

 although scant in extent, have required from me many h^ng years of 

 hunting. I now have but the later specimens; two-thirds of those I 

 had gathered have perished in numerous removals — they have been 

 lost, forgotten or abandoned. 



It is not enough to kill a bird : this must be done under favorable 

 circumstances, that is to say, we must have two things which are not 

 always at hand — scales to Aveigh the creature directly after death, 

 and appliances for measuring and calculating its surface. 



Birds sold on the market in the towns of Europe are generally unfit 

 to gather data from, be(,*ause they have been drawn or are dried up, 

 and the exact weight can not be ascertained. Among fifty rare birds 

 which have been sent to me, only three could be utilized; all the others 

 lacked something or other and had to be rejected. One of the latter 



