WIND AND FLIGHT 121 
wind near the earth’s surface increases in velocity 
with altitude. 
Rising. 
Almost everyone has noticed that birds always 
face the wind when they rise. In the case of big, 
heavy birds this is particularly striking, for they 
will often fly some little distance in the wrong direc- 
tion, in a direction in which they certainly do not 
wish to go, in order to get the help of the wind in 
rising. When they have gained some little altitude 
they turn and make for their objective. When a . 
steamer disturbs a Gannet floating on the water, if 
there happen to be a fresh breeze blowing from the 
steamer towards him, he will in rising head towards 
the imagined enemy, and not till he has at his 
disposal a few feet of altitude will he turn and make 
off rapidly with the wind behind him. Oyster- 
catchers will do the same thing. Once, when walking 
along the sands south of the Solway Firth, I saw 
hundreds of them in front of me. There was a 
strong breeze blowing from me to them. Hence it 
was much easier for them to make a start if they 
flew towards me till they attained some slight 
elevation. They therefore flew a little way towards 
the disturber of their peace, then turned and settled 
some way off upon the sand. I put them up a good 
many times, and each time they began by flying a 
short distance towards me; so important is it for 
a bird to get the help of the wind in rising. I once 
saw a Cormorant fly a quarter of a mile or so in the 
wrong direction. He had been feeding with his 
fellows, which had all, after the meal, retired to a 
rock, where they were drying their wings in the usual 
