60 BIRDS ON THE WING. 



wings to give himself a new impulse ; and this 

 process he repeats until he nears the end of his airy 

 voyage, when he describes a graceful upward curve 

 and flings himself bodily against the bole of a tree. 

 One might almost say — and I think Maurice 

 Thompson has hinted as much — that the redhead 

 gallops through the air rather than sails. 



The hairy and down}^ woodpeckers fly in the 

 same way ; so does the flicker, although my obser- 

 vation has been that his separate plunges, or flight- 

 impulses, are not so well accentuated as those of 

 his redheaded relatives. He seems to keep his 

 wings spread out more continuously. While I am 

 speaking of the flight of the golden-wing, I wish to 

 add that I have often watched him descending 

 from the tops of the tall trees to the fence or the 

 ground, and I do not know that I have ever wit- 

 nessed a more graceful performance even among 

 my winged acquaintances. He sweeps down in a 

 gentle curve, moving by longer or shorter impulses 

 of flight, his handsome figure and mottled plumage 

 making a beautiful picture to the eye. It is the 

 very poetry of flight. Would that all had the gift 

 of " coming down " so gracefully ! In this respect 

 birds are our peers ; they are quite expert at per- 

 forming this feat of descension, if not condescension. 



