STARTING 53 



at the shoulder, and can, moreover, point their wings 

 forward so that at the finish of the down-stroke they 

 have an upward incline from tip to base. On the 

 other hand, the Partridge and the Herring-Gull have 

 very little power of rotation. The striking contrast 

 between the Partridge and the Pheasant throws a 

 great deal of light upon the question. The Pheasant 

 is a denizen of woods and has often to make for an 

 opening in the branches that shows itself almost 

 directly over his head. Heading straight for it, he 

 points his body almost vertically upward, but, in spite 

 of that, his wings have an up-and-down beat, and turn 

 the concavity of their nether side towards the ground 

 and their upper convex surface towards the sky. 

 The Partridge, on the other hand, frequents plains 

 and open fields where there are no entanglements 

 to make a nearly vertical ascent even an occasional 

 necessity. A Wild Duck sometimes finds it expe- 

 dient to mount upward from her nest among the 

 bushes in the same style as the Pheasant just 

 described, and I have seen a Wigeon, without any 

 apparent advantage to himself, shoot up thus from a 

 large piece of open water. All birds, if we except 

 those that frequent only open water, bare cliffs, bare 

 hills or unwooded plains, may find, any moment, that 

 they have to make a rapid ascent up a steep incline ; 

 life itself may depend upon it. Hence great freedom 

 at the shoulder is very common. I have observed 

 it not only in the Pheasant and the Duck, but in the 

 Jackdaw, Crow, Raven, Chough, Jay, Magpie, and 

 Quail. No wing, I think, rotates more freely than 

 that of the domestic Pigeon. Were it not for this, 

 the bird in PL viii could not achieve, as he is 



