ON THE POSITIONS ASSUMED BY BIRDS IN FLIGHT! 
[With 8 plates.] 
Ey Bentiey Beertuay, F. Z. 8. 
I.—STARTING. 
The flight of birds must ever remain a source of interest and 
- inspiration to man, for should he eventually master aerial as suc- 
cessfully as he has terrestrial locomotion, birds would, by reason 
of their inherent sensibility to gauge the varying aircurrents, still 
remain vastly his superior in the art, if not in actual pace at least 
in the finer manipulations. 
But whether we regard flight from the standpoint of the ornitholo- 
gist or the aviator, the actions of these naturally equipped per- 
formers can not be too closely regarded. 
The great difficulty met with in studying the flight of birds is the 
indefinite and almost inexpressible nature of much of our observa- 
tion. We see a bird make a sudden turn or falter in its course; a 
little thing, yet even if we could analyze its actions, which is improb- 
able, it would take a page or two of writing before we could be sure 
that another would understand the positions and actions as we saw 
them. In our present lack of intimacy with the subject words are 
quite inefficient, and we must largely rely on pictures, photographs 
by preference, wherewith to record our observations. 
The slower and individual movements of the wings and tails of 
such large birds as herons, gulls, or eagles, are easy to perceive, and 
in many cases their object or result can be appreciated, if only one 
can get close enough. Unfortunately, however, our near glimpses 
of large birds on the wing are usually but momentary, and it is only 
by piecing together little isolated scraps of observation that we can 
get a consecutive idea of what has taken place. Often the combina- 
tion of our eyes and brain is far too slow to analyze and follow the 
different movements, and the only impression the mind receives is one 
of rapid beating motion, a& is so noticeable in the flight of bees and 
1 Reprinted by permission from British Birds, Witherby & Co., London, vol. 4, June, 1910-May, 1911, pp. 
162-168, 198-203 , 350-356. 
38734°—sm 1911——28 433 
