86 THE BIOLOGY OF BIRDS 



some of the owls, whose flight is so absolutely noiseless. 

 The effect is curiously uncanny ; they appear suddenly out 

 of the darkness and disappear again like spirits of another 

 world." 



Some other modes of locomotion among birds are 

 referred to in connection with haunts — the swift running 

 on the desert, the hopping from branch to branch, the 

 ouzel's " flying under water," and how many more. In 

 many cases we recognise the same touch of perfection that 

 we see in flight. Thus the instantaneousness of the dis- 

 appearance of some of the diving birds is like magic, we 

 cannot see how the trick is done. Dr. F. M. Ogilvie (1920) 

 gives a fine description of a familiar sight : " The Shag's — 

 and, indeed, all the Cormorants' — method of diving is 

 absolutely characteristic. He really springs right out of 

 the water, turns over in the air, and takes a noiseless header ; 

 but the body is so close to the water throughout the 

 manoeuvre, and the action is so quick, easy, and free of 

 effort, that one hardly follows the middle stage where the 

 body of the bird is really out of the water altogether, the 

 moment when his paddles are just leaving the water with 

 his kick off, and the beak is just meeting the water to com- 

 plete the downward half of the semicircle which he 

 describes." 



