326 



The Bird 



powers of flight. When perched on a branch, they can 

 evade the shot from a shot-gun. It is said that one will 

 sometimes ''chase another for three or four minutes, 

 doubling, turning, twisting, and shooting, now brushing 

 the grass, now rismg to a height of at least two or three 



Fig. 261. — Condor about to take flight. 



hundred feet, and all the movements so rapid that the 

 eye can scarcely follow them; and at the end of it would 

 go back to his own chosen weed-stalk, apparently without 

 a feather ruffled.'^ 



Any attempt to explain the mechanics of the way of a 

 bird in the air would at most be imperfect in the present 



