STARTING 49 



It is not that they are deficient in lifting power, 

 for it is said that an Eagle can carry a weight as 

 great as its own, and I have seen a Falcon flying 

 off with a victim that was not far short of itself 

 in point of size. 



Whether big or small, birds all fold their wings 

 neatly upon their backs, where they cannot possibly 

 interfere with freedom of leg action. In order 

 to appreciate the excellence of this arrangement, 

 we must compare the bird with the bat or with the 

 pterodactyle, whose wings were remarkably bat-like. 

 Extending, as they did, far back and attaching to 

 his legs, they must have been as bad an encumbrance 

 as long skirts. Though, no doubt, a fine flyer in 

 a bat-like style when once launched on his way, 

 the pterodactyle was a poor starter. The bird's 

 legs, on the contrary, are not sacrificed to his wings 

 (see PI. viii). Unless he is one of the specially 

 bad starters, he jumps lightly into the air and is off. 



With regard to the heavy, lumbering way in which 

 many big birds rise, a great deal is to be learnt 

 by watching a Heron start to fly from level ground. 

 Unlike the Condor, the Comorant, the Puffin, and 

 the Swift, he has no difficulty in getting under 

 way. True, he does not rise with a steep incline 

 as an ordinary small bird or a Pigeon can, but a 

 gradual ascent he carries out without difficulty. 

 He drops from the top of his long legs on to the 

 spacious fields of air and is at once clear of the earth, 

 with ample room for the plying of his wings. On 

 the other hand, the big short-legged birds and 

 small birds like the Swift, with very short, feeble 

 legs, have no room for a full sweep of their wings, 



