into the air, stretches his long neck out to its fullest extent, and 
presents a pair of dangling legs, well shown in one of our coloured 
Plates, but when once fully on the way its pose entirely changes, 
the neck being drawn in and the legs thrust out backwards. 
Flight does not always mean progress through the air. Most 
birds can, at need, arrest their course, and hang, as it were, 
suspended in the air. In the beautiful coloured plate, represent- 
ing the chaffinch hovering over its half-fledged young, and in that 
of the kingfisher and its young, this form of “ hovering” flight 
can be seen. But the greatest of all exponents in the art of 
hovering is the kestrel, known also, for this very reason, as the 
“‘windover.” It is most fascinating to watch this bird hang, 
as it were, from the clouds, motionless, yet with quivering wings, 
as he scans the ground below in his search for some unsuspecting 
mouse. It is hard, indeed, to say which is the more wonderful, 
this power of remaining stationary for comparatively long 
periods in the air, or the surprising powers of sight which this 
bird possesses. During these hovering movements, always head 
to wind, it will be noted, the tail plays a very important part, 
being spread to its extremest limit, and at the same time thrust 
forward beneath the body. In some birds this forward move- 
ment is more marked than in others. And this because such 
birds possess a somewhat more flexible spine, there being a certain 
amount of “ play ” where the vertebrae of the loins join the welded 
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