STOPPING AND ALIGHTING 65 
As birds are so careful in alighting to avoid all jar, 
it is remarkable that some species have habits which 
would seem likely to cause concussion of the brain. 
It is astonishing that the Nuthatch, for example, 
when he has been half the day hammering at nuts 
with tremendous vigour, yet suffers no bad conse- 
quences. But we must bear in mind that the bird’s 
neck, with its peculiar saddle-and-rider vertebrae, 
is more supple than a snake, whereas the backbone, 
except just at the waist, is remarkable for its rigidity. 
Hence, probably, the care and dexterity in alighting 
that contrast so strikingly with the reckless use of 
the beak and head as a hammer by the Nuthatch, 
the Woodpecker, and other birds. It must be owned 
that there are some birds which, when they are 
alighting, are very unlike the “Herald Mercury.” 
Among these we must count the Gannet. When he 
gets near his nest upon some cliff, he paddles hard 
with his legs, and at last settles clumsily down. Mr. 
Bentley Beetham (British Birds, May, 1911) has 
some very good illustrations of the Gannet’s style 
of alighting. One of them shows a bird that has so 
lost command of his movements, that he is flopping 
most ungracefully onto his nest. His breast is 
resting on the pile of dry seaweed, his outspread 
wings on the rock at either side. It is an astonishing 
attitude, but it must be borne in mind that the 
Gannet is in the habit of taking headers from a great 
height, and that his breast is shielded by air cavities 
beneath the skin, first-rate air-cushions that greatly 
reduce the shock when he dashes into the water. 
This may account for his descending breast foremost 
onto his nest. But the Cormorant, who has no 
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