120 BRITISH BIRDS. 



rotation at the shoulder. If a Cormorant were to slope 

 his body steeply upward, his wings would beat forward 

 and backward instead of up and down. 



Flight against the Wind. 



Birds, and notably small birds, may be seen making 

 headway against very strong winds ; but, of course, their 

 pace is much less than it would be were the wind behind 

 them, or if there were no wind at all. But they cannot 

 fly against a regular gale. At New Romney, in 1894, I 

 saw some Gulls flying dead against the furious blizzard, 

 but they kejDt so near to the ground that their wings 

 almost touched it, and even at that comparatively calm 

 level, where friction took much of the sting out of the 

 blast, they made but slow and laboured progress. 



Flight with the Wind. 



Homing pigeons make the best times when they fly with 

 the wind behind them. Where a velocity of fifty miles 

 an hour is recorded, it is always with the help of a 

 " tailwind." But there is a general belief among observers 

 that birds never fly with a regular gale behind them. 

 Certainly, when they are feeding, they always face a high 

 wind. Last year I was in Alderney, and, one day, when 

 there blew what even an old sailor would call a stiff breeze, 

 it was very interesting to watch the shore birds. They all, 

 without exception, headed towards the wind as they walked 

 on the sand or the rocks. A large flock of Oyster Catchers 

 stood motionless, every single bird facing straight to the 

 front like a regiment of soldiers. The horses and cows, 

 on the contrary, all turned their heads away from the 

 wind. No doubt, a bird very much dislikes having his 

 plumage ruffled from behind by a gale. When the Ringed 

 Plover and the Dunlins flew from one patch of sand to 

 another (the patches were scattered among the rocks), 

 they did not head towards what appeared to be their 

 objective, if, in order to reach it, they would have had to 

 fly with the wind behind them. They headed in a direction 

 at right angles to the wind, and let it sweep them sideways 



