STARTING 53 
at the shoulder, and can, moreover, point their wings 
forward so that at the finish of the down-stroke they 
have an upward incline from tip to base. On the 
other hand, the Partridge and the Herring-Gull have 
very little power of rotation. The striking contrast 
between the Partridge and the Pheasant throws a 
great deal of light upon the question. The Pheasant 
is a denizen of woods and has often to make for an 
opening in the branches that shows itself almost 
directly over his head. Heading straight for it, he 
points his body almost vertically upward, but, inspite 
of that, his wings have an up-and-down beat, and turn 
the concavity of their nether side towards the ground 
and their upper convex surface towards the sky. 
The Partridge, on the other hand, frequents plains 
and open fields where there are no entanglements 
to make a nearly vertical ascent even an occasional 
necessity. A Wild Duck sometimes finds it expe- 
dient to mount upward from her nest among the 
bushes in the same style as the Pheasant just 
described, and I have seen a Wigeon, without any 
apparent advantage to himself, shoot up thus from a 
large piece of open water. All birds, if we except 
those that frequent only open water, bare cliffs, bare 
hills or unwooded plains, may find, any moment, that 
they have to make a rapid ascent up a steep incline ; 
life itself may depend upon it. Hence great freedom 
at the shoulder is very common. I have observed 
it not only in the Pheasant and the Duck, but in the 
Jackdaw, Crow, Raven, Chough, Jay, Magpie, and 
Quail. No wing, I think, rotates more freely than 
that of the domestic Pigeon. Were it not for this, 
the bird in Pl. vim could not achieve, as he is 
