STARTING 49 
It is not that they are deficient in lifting power, 
for it is said that an Eagle can carry a weight as 
great as its own, and I have seen a Falcon flying 
off with a victim that was not far short of itself 
in point of size. 
Whether big or small, birds all fold their wings 
neatly upon their backs, where they cannot possibly 
interfere with freedom of leg action. In order 
to appreciate the excellence of this arrangement, 
we must compare the bird with the bat or with the 
pterodactyle, whose wings were remarkably bat-like. 
Extending, as they did, far back and attaching to 
his legs, they must have been as bad an encumbrance 
as long skirts. Though, no doubt, a fine flyer in 
a bat-like style when once launched on his way, 
the pterodactyle was a poor starter. The bird’s 
legs, on the contrary, are not sacrificed to his wings 
(see Pl. vit). Unless he is one of the specially 
bad starters, he jumps lightly into the air and is off. 
With regard to the heavy, lumbering way in which 
many big birds rise, a great deal is to be learnt 
by watching a Heron start to fly from level ground. 
Unlike the Condor, the Comorant, the Puffin, and 
the Swift, he has no difficulty in getting under 
way. True, he does not rise with a steep incline 
as an ordinary small bird or a Pigeon can, but a 
gradual ascent he carries out without difficulty. 
He drops from the top of his long legs on to the 
spacious fields of air and is at once clear of the earth, 
with ample room for the plying of his wings. On 
the other hand, the big short-legged birds and 
small birds like the Swift, with very short, feeble 
legs, have no room for a full sweep of their wings, 
B 
