POSITIONS ASSUMED BY BIRDS IN FLIGHT. 165 



In Figure 1 the Gannet has not even risen to its feet 

 prior to hfting the wings, but is sitting on the edge of the 

 nest. The apparent leg supporting it on the near side 

 is a dehision, for instead of being the metatarsus, as it 

 seems, it is really the closed webbed toes hanging down- 

 wards from the raised and hidden leg, only the claws 

 really touching the nest. The reason for this peculiar 

 position is the newly-hatched chick, hardly discernible. 



FIGURE 2. — ABOUT TO DIVE FORTH. 

 [Photographed by Bentley Beetham.) 



lying in the nest, which would inevitably have been 

 crushed had the bird rested on its expanded foot. 



This raising of the wings preparatory to diving forth 

 is perhaps more convincingly shown in Figure 2, as the 

 photograph is taken from a point on the same level as 

 the bird, and shows the wings held up far above the 

 bird's head. This picture, as also Figure 1, embraces 



